Meanwhile, Back in My Country...

Recently, most states have gone blue. Especially Texas, where I work (I'm a work-from-home virtual assistant). Congratulations! Genuinely. Must be nice to witness political developments that give you at least a little hope.

So, what about my country?

Yeah. We're not doing so great.

Honestly, classifying political parties in the Philippines is a headache in itself, especially when I'm trying to explain our political landscape to a bunch of foreigners on a blog. We don't exactly have a straightforward Republican-versus-Democrat situation. Political affiliations here are often built around personalities, political families, alliances, and whoever happens to be useful to whoever is in power.

But I'll try my best.

(Disclaimer: These are my personal observations and opinions. I'm bored, politically exhausted, and particularly angry today. Consider this my attempt at making sense of the circus.)

Here are some of the major political parties and affiliations currently represented in our government, their general ideological leanings, and how many representatives they have.

1. House of Representatives

2. Senate

Note: These are broad ideological classifications, not necessarily the personal beliefs of every politician. Political affiliations and alliances can also change.

So, yes. We are predominantly represented by centre-right and conservative political groups. And I can't help but wonder how much this contributes to the painfully slow progress we're experiencing, whether economically, socially, or in terms of basic human rights.

But the problem isn't just ideology. It's accountability. It's political dynasties. It's personality-based politics. It's politicians who have mastered the art of being popular without necessarily demonstrating that they're capable of governing.

And let's talk about the voters.

A lot of our elections seem to revolve around familiar surnames, celebrity status, political endorsements, and carefully manufactured public images rather than actual qualifications, track records, or policies. Of course, not every Filipino votes this way. But the pattern is difficult to ignore.

We have a country that suffered under authoritarian rule, martial law, and decades of political abuse. Yet somehow, we continue to give political power to the very families associated with that chapter of our history.

We have people who fought for democracy, only for historical revisionism to become a political tool.

We have elected celebrities and entertainers to public office, sometimes with little scrutiny of their actual qualifications for the positions they're seeking.

We have politicians making promises about poverty while ordinary Filipinos struggle to afford food, transportation, electricity, and healthcare.

And we have a government whose own poverty statistics have sparked outrage over how little money is supposedly enough to keep a person above the poverty line.

₱95 a day.

5.15 fucking USD...

How do you expect someone to eat, commute, pay for necessities, and survive on that? And before anyone tells me that this is merely a statistical threshold and not a recommended daily budget, I KNOW. That's precisely why the methodology and what it represents deserve scrutiny. A statistical classification should never become an excuse to normalize an unbearable standard of living.

And the list goes on. And on. AND FUCKING ON.

If I listed every political controversy, questionable allocation, investigation, and government failure, this blog post would turn into a fucking thesis. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH.

So, where is all our money going?

Because apparently, being a taxpayer in this country also means having to become a part-time investigator just to figure out what happens to our own money.

Here are some of the major controversies and investigations that have raised questions about public funds and government accountability.

These figures refer to different things: budget allocations, disallowed expenditures, funds ordered returned, and amounts involved in investigations. They should not all be interpreted as money proven stolen. Allegations, audit findings, and convictions are not the same thing.

The flood-control scandal alone is infuriating to think about. Imagine billions allocated for infrastructure that is supposed to protect communities from flooding, only for alleged ghost projects, questionable contracts, and irregularities to emerge.

People lose their homes. Communities get submerged. Families lose their livelihoods. And somewhere in the middle of all that, public money is being investigated for allegedly going somewhere it was never supposed to go.

What exactly are we paying taxes for?

And this is just one controversy.

So, whose fault is it?

The government? The voters? Political dynasties? The media? The education system? The people who knowingly spread disinformation? The institutions that are supposed to hold everyone accountable?

Honestly, probably a combination of all of them.

But I refuse to believe that ordinary Filipinos should simply accept this as the natural state of things. We shouldn't have to get used to corruption. We shouldn't have to lower our expectations of public officials just because disappointment has become routine.

And I especially hate how easily these controversies become forgotten. A scandal trends for a few weeks, people argue about it, politicians issue statements, investigations begin, and then something else happens. Another controversy. Another headline. Another public outrage.

Then what?

How many investigations must be opened before someone is actually held accountable? How many billions must disappear into questionable projects? How many families must lose their homes to floods that supposedly had billions allocated to prevent them? How many people must suffer before basic necessities are treated as basic human rights rather than political campaign material?

How much more money are we going to lose? How many more lives? How many more years are we going to spend watching the same cycle repeat itself?

I'm tired of being told to be patient. I'm tired of being told that change takes time. I'm tired of watching politicians treat public office like a family inheritance while ordinary people are expected to survive on whatever scraps are left.

I don't expect a perfect government. I don't even expect every politician to agree with me.

I just want a government that understands that it is supposed to fucking serve its people.

Is that really too much to ask?