Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan said the spirit of People Power is taking new form — no longer confined to street protests but alive in citizens’ vigilance, truth-telling, and public participation.
In a reflection titled “People Power Reborn” posted on his Facebook account, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said the “new People Power is not only about massive rallies — though those will always have their place — but about sustained participation, informed vigilance, and creative collaboration.”
“It is about ordinary citizens using extraordinary means — research, digital platforms, and public engagement — to disinfect the wounds of a system infected by greed and impunity,” he wrote.
Cardinal David said today’s People Power “no longer shouts from the streets alone; it now reasons in public forums, collaborates across generations, and acts in the name of the common good.”
He described the country as “witnessing the slow emergence of what may be called the civic antibodies of our democracy” — citizens who guard public interest through truth and transparency.
“These are the young professionals and volunteers who spend sleepless nights poring over spreadsheets, procurement reports, and budget annexes; the local leaders who organize communities to demand transparency; the teachers and journalists who help the public understand how corruption eats away at the common good,” he wrote.
The reflection followed the Senate Committee on Finance hearing led by Senator Win Gatchalian, where young reform advocates AJ Montesa and Ken Abante testified on behalf of the Roundtable Forum for Integral Development and the Philippine Budget Watch community.
“I found myself listening with both admiration and quiet awe as these two young Filipinos articulated what many of us have long felt in our hearts but could not express as clearly or courageously,” said the prelate. “It was not just another budget hearing; it was a moral moment.”
Their analogy, he noted, was “unforgettable: our nation as a body afflicted with malignant cancer.” They identified the “tumors” as “‘soft and hard pork,’ the bloated, secretly inserted, patronage-driven budgets disguised as programmed and unprogrammed appropriations.”
“What struck me even more,” he added, “was the way they described civil society as the body’s immune system.”
“If AJ Montesa and Ken Abante are any indication, the antibodies are awakening. And perhaps, after all these years, the patient — the Filipino nation — still has the strength to heal,” the prelate said.
