Baguio anti-corruption protesters: Change doesn’t happen overnight

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Almost 10 weeks since Baguio-Benguet first gathered on Sept. 21 to condemn government corruption, thousands went back to the streets on Sunday, Nov. 30 in a renewed display of persistence in demanding liability.

For Gabriel Siscar of Kabataan Partylist Cordillera, the protest—Baha sa Burnham— which set off from the Baguio City Convention Center, served as a reminder that change does not come overnight, nor through a single mass demonstration.

READ: LIVE UPDATES: November 30 rallies against corruption

As he pointed out, it is a struggle that demands perseverance. “We are not blind,” he said in an interview, stressing that “we did not initiate this series of protests thinking that one rally would bring about change.”

“We know that to enact genuine change, the people’s mass movement has to be sustained,” Siscar said, highlighting the reason behind the series of protests that followed the Sept. 21 Baguio-Benguet March Against Corruption.

READ: Budget insertions, confidential funds blasted in Baguio rally

The Baha sa Burnham, a counterpart to the Baha sa Luneta 2.0 in Manila, as well as the Trillion Peso March 2.0 in Quezon City, coincided with the celebration of Bonifacio Day, which Filipinos consider as the Araw ng Anakpawis.

For Siscar, it gave the protest another layer of urgency as they echoed the plight of the marginalized, especially the vendors at the Baguio City Public Market opposing the possible corporate takeover, and local drivers threatened by jeepney phaseout.

The protest, he said, was not only a call against corruption—it was a chance to highlight the sectors most affected by it—the vendors, the drivers, the communities that live with vulnerability every single day.

READ: Baguio-Benguet march backs nationwide anti-corruption protests

But Siscar shared the sentiments of millions of Filipinos frustrated by what he described as the slow progress in government investigations that seek to prosecute officials and contractors behind the corruption in several infrastructure projects.

He pointed out, however, that rather than weaken the movement, the seeming absence of justice has only sharpened their resolve to stand strong in demanding accountability.

“It’s dismaying, yes,” he said. “But at the same time, that’s where you draw your anger—your fuel—because we believe our country is not hopeless. There is so much we can change as long as we continue our fight.”

Siscar said the local protest is evidence that the commitment they have made on Sept. 21 has held firm, stressing that what began weeks ago as a spark has, in his view, turned into the start of an “era of protest.”

READ: Campus walkouts vs corruption staged by Baguio, Benguet students

This, as the community held a Prayer March Against Corruption on Oct. 7; Baguio-Benguet Walkout on Nov. 18, anti-corruption protest in La Trinidad, Benguet on Oct. 18, and the series of market vendors’ protest on Nov. 20 and 26.

“We will not stop,” he said, “until those responsible are held to account—and until genuine change takes root.” /cb