CHICKENPIE.Every few years, Filipinos pick a color. Yellow. Orange. Pink. White.
The White Ribbon March comes to EDSA tomorrow. A hundred thousand people. Nine thousand five hundred police officers deployed to protect them from the government they’re marching against. The Catholic bishops said go. The inter-religious council said go. The civil society groups who’ve been saying “this is too much” since before some of the marchers were born said definitely go. Everyone said go. Malacañang said nothing, which is also a position.
The demands have three lines. End corruption. Pass an anti-dynasty bill. Fix the elections.
Three lines. Forty years. Same intersection.
EDSA People Power Monument stands at the most-traveled road in Metro Manila and the most repeatedly disappointed address in Philippine history. We’ve been here with every administration since 1986 — waving something, demanding something, and watching the something not happen. The ₱3.5 billion flood control budget disappeared. Jinggoy Estrada got a ninety-day suspension — not a career end, a time-out — and is already back in chambers. The dynasty named after the dynasty keeps fielding candidates, sometimes for the same seat, sometimes for the one across the aisle.
White ribbons this time. Because maybe the yellow, orange, and pink moments were too festive. White is what you wear to a wake. White is what doctors put on when they’re trying to save something. White is also what you wave when you’re surrendering — and nobody here is surrendering, but someone in Malacañang might want to note which of those it resembles.
The ribbon is a symbol. Symbols don’t pass bills. They don’t claw back ₱3.5 billion from flood control ledgers. They don’t automatically disqualify a family from running the entire municipal government AND the barangay captain slot AND the precinct watchers.
But a hundred thousand people choosing to stand on the same concrete in June heat — on purpose — is not nothing. It’s the only receipt the country has right now that can’t be shredded.
Sunday. EDSA. White ribbons. See you there, or see you explaining why you weren’t.
