In Medellin, survivors of the quake spent the night not in evacuation centers with beds and blankets, but out in the open, under the pouring rain. With nothing to protect themselves, they turned to plastic bags as makeshift roofs and blankets.
Imagine that, mothers trying to keep their babies warm with plastic scraps, elderly people shivering on the damp ground, children asking why their house was gone. Victims had just survived a powerful earthquake, only to battle hunger, cold, and fear in the aftermath.
Meanwhile, in Halls of Power…
As survivors huddled beneath plastic bags, the country’s corrupt politicians slept soundly on imported mattresses inside air-conditioned mansions. The same money that should have built sturdy homes, stocked relief goods, and funded disaster response has instead lined the pockets of those who swore an oath to serve.
Luxury watches worth millions, designer handbags straight from Europe, convoys of luxury cars, these have become the “relief goods” of politicians who plunder public funds. Every peso stolen is a blanket never bought, a bed never given, an evacuation center never built.
Corruption: The Real Aftershock
Earthquakes are beyond human control. Corruption is not. And yet, corruption has become the greater disaster, turning tragedies into nightmares. If the billions lost to greed had been used to prepare, no child in Cebu would have been forced to sleep in the rain, wrapped in plastic.
The people endure the aftershocks of greed long after the tremors fade. And the cruelest part? Those who suffer most are not the ones responsible. Fishermen, vendors, students, these are the people who bleed for a system that robs them blind.
Who Really Pays the Price?
It is not the politicians with their foreign trips and luxury homes who suffer. It is the ordinary Filipino, the ones paying taxes with every kilo of rice they buy, every jeepney ride they take. They give and give, only to sleep in plastic bags when disaster strikes.
Why should the poor always pay the price for the rich man’s corruption? Why should the fisherman’s family, already struggling to live, now struggle to survive because their leaders chose greed over duty?
The Call for Justice
The earthquake in Cebu is not just a natural calamity, it is a mirror of our broken system. Until leaders are held accountable, the cycle will repeat: the people will suffer in silence, while those in power dine, drink, and flaunt wealth stolen from the very lives they abandon.
How many more families must sleep in plastic bags before leaders stop sleeping on silk sheets bought with the people’s money?
