A Catholic archbishop has urged Filipinos to go beyond protesting a corrupt political system and confront the moral decay within themselves that allows it to thrive, saying true reform must begin in the soul.
In a strongly worded pastoral letter, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan denounced what he called entrenched corruption in the country’s institutions, from elections to flood control projects, and warned that anger alone is not enough to uproot it.
“We need a revolt, a revolt not just against a corrupt system, but a revolt against the corrupt hearts and souls within us that enable the corrupt to prosper,” Villegas said.
He lamented what he described as public resignation to a broken system — a compromised electoral process, weakened government machinery and eroded checks and balances.
Even institutions tasked with investigating wrongdoing, according to him, have been tainted by corruption.
“It is not enough to investigate the corruption of the flood control projects,” Villegas said. “We must abolish the pork barrel of lawmakers that makes stealing easy to do.”
But he stressed that systemic reforms will collapse unless citizens also change their own behavior — from tolerating patronage politics and accepting ayuda or favors from candidates to bribing police officers and tax officials.
“Do we citizens have enough proof in our personal and private lives that our lives are the opposite of the corrupt politicians? Have we not been occasional beneficiaries of their loot from the taxes?” Villegas asked.
The archbishop said it is not enough to elect honest leaders; citizens must also guard them and demand accountability.
More than protest, he added, Christians are called to live as “the antithesis, the enemies of robbers and plunderers in civil service.”
While welcoming public outrage over corruption, he said repentance gives protests their real power. “Change is good but atonement makes it lasting,” he added.
“We must be angry at the corruption within us,” Villegas also said. “Otherwise the rally will only be, ‘Tama na! Kami naman!’” (Enough! Now it’s our turn!)
The pastoral letter will be read in all parishes of the archdiocese on Sept. 21, the anniversary of the martial law declaration by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s late father.
It also comes ahead of mass protests planned in Manila and other provinces on Sunday to denounce alleged anomalies in multibillion-peso flood control projects.
