The Ides of March

Two days ago, together with thousands of others, I marched from Liwasang Bonifacio to the gates of Malacañang. We were protesting — nay, raging, raging — against the so-called FloodGate, where contractors, public works officials, and lawmakers have been cheating us out of almost a trillion pesos since 2022.

It was not the first time I marched. Although not a professional rallyist in the mold of Renato “Baba” Reyes, I’ve had my fair share. In law school, I took to the streets to protest tuition hikes and, more memorably, against the Cory Government’s cheating of candidates of the Grand Alliance of Democracy.

It was memorable because it was my first taste of tear gas, when the police forcibly dispersed our group in front of Camp Crame and tried to dismantle our makeshift stage. I remember, as if it were yesterday, how dozens of us tried to get off the stage before it collapsed, and jumping off, I landed on top of Kit Tatad, who was not very pleased with unwillingly breaking my fall.

As a lawyer, I marched — either with the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) or the Citizens Crime Watch (CCW), or both — against pork barrel (during which I met actress Myrtle Sarrosa, which was the start of a beautiful friendship), the massacre of SAF 44, the Dengvaxia scam, and the recruitment by Communist front organizations of underage students from universities, and at least twice to support the Supreme Court.

But the rally last 21 September was different because I could sense a whole new level of anger and frustration in the air. I am sure it was because FloodGate was also a whole new level of thievery, perhaps the largest raid on the public treasury in Philippine history. But it could also have been anger mixed with frustration, as the hopes of a Senate inquiry under Senator Dante Marcoleta that was well on its way to revealing the real masterminds of the scam, was hijacked by the sudden change in the Senate leadership and the replacement of Marcoleta.

After that, the Senate inquiry has gone pell-mell, with undue attention to largely making the Discayas the scapegoat. Indeed, it is quite strange that the Senate President himself, with his principal ally, the legal lightweight Kiko Pangilinan, casting clouds on their testimonies against administration allies in the House of Representatives, while at the same time prematurely giving credence to unsupported claims by another witness against their own brethren in the Upper Chamber. All of these things have not been lost on the crowds gathered in many places during the protest.

Last Sunday’s march was also notable because it was only my second time to join a rally after the injury I sustained in Prague last January. A few months ago, together with a thousand or so members of the CCW and other groups, I marched from Liwasang Bonifacio to the Supreme Court, a distance of 2.1 kilometers. Halfway through, I had to walk with a cane as my right knee began to hurt.

But two days ago, after being treated in Taipei (whose health facilities are among the best in the world), I made the 2.8 kilometers from Liwasan to the Palace in good time, and with no walking aid. Truly, I am now able to go much farther than the ides (or the middle) of the march.