Outraged many times over

Outraged many times over | Daily Tribune

Welcome to the Philippines in 2026, where outrage has become not merely a reaction to the news but, increasingly, the news itself.

Duterte’s legal troubles are serious: a Quezon City court found probable cause to hold her for trial and issued a warrant over allegations from her 2024 remarks about President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

She denies the accusations and says she will pursue legal remedies — questions best settled in court, on evidence and the law. But somewhere between the courtroom and the comment section, another trial begins: the trial of public opinion.

We watch a politician enter a building and dissect her every gesture — an embrace becomes either loyalty or blind allegiance, every statement a battle cry.

There’s nothing wrong with being angry — democracy needs citizens passionate about injustice, corruption and abuse of power. Anger without reflection becomes exhausting; outrage without action, useless. Passion should lead to purpose.

Instead, we’ve built a culture where being first to condemn matters more than understanding what happened, and the loudest reaction wins more attention than thoughtful analysis.

Social media makes it worse — a complex proceeding reduced to seconds of video, context lost, a disagreement turned meme, then movement. We decide who the villain is before we’ve established the facts.

This isn’t unique to one political camp — we’re good at being angry at one another. Are we equally good at listening, thinking and doing something useful with that anger?

That matters because the country has problems no comment section can solve: teachers need working classrooms, families need decent jobs, hospitals need resources, communities need protection from disasters, young Filipinos need reasons to believe their future isn’t elsewhere. These rarely generate a political controversy’s fury, and rarely go viral. But they matter.

We should save energy for the people quietly keeping this country moving — teachers who stay late, health workers on another shift, volunteers showing up after floods, parents working two jobs, young people building instead of complaining. They may not give us outrage’s adrenaline rush, but something more valuable: hope.

We can demand accountability without cruelty, criticize without dehumanizing, disagree without assuming the other side is stupid, evil or hopeless. Courage comes after anger: asking what is true, insisting on due process even for people we dislike, holding our own side to the standards we demand of others.

Citizenship isn’t a spectator sport — not how loudly we cheer for our camp or condemn the other. The country will be changed not by the shrillest voices, but by those who decide to do something constructive.

Today, Alex Eala and Lea Salonga show the world the best Filipinos can be, a reminder of the values that carried us through harder times: bayanihan, malasakit, our instinct to look after one another.

The Philippines will not be rebuilt by outrage alone, but by ordinary Filipinos who choose to participate in its greatness wherever they are.