When the Nation Weakens, Ordinary Filipinos Suffer

The chaos unfolding in Philippine politics today is creating confusion, anger, and deep division among Filipinos. From impeachment battles and Senate conflicts to public denials and obvious political maneuvering, many citizens no longer know whom to believe. Our institutions appear weakened while trust in government continues to erode. In the midst of this, political camps are more focused on defeating each other rather than solving the problems of the people.

The public can only watch in disgust while impeachment proceedings, Senate realignments, ICC-related controversies, and rival political camps treat our democratic institutions as political battlegrounds. For ordinary Filipinos, these charades do not provide clarity but only exhaustion. We are tired and distrustful.

And this distrust is not imagined. In Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index released in February 2026, the Philippines scored 32 out of 100 and ranked 120th out of 182 countries. This is a reminder that corruption remains a persistent source of public cynicism and anger. When people see institutions weakened by corruption, selective accountability, and political survival, they begin to ask whether the system still works for them.

We have already seen how political instability and public frustration become fertile ground for radical movements, extremism, and armed struggle. When government institutions lose credibility, many become vulnerable to propaganda and narratives that promise “revolution” as the answer to suffering and inequality.

The CPP itself has openly framed worsening public hardship and political crisis as conditions that should push Filipinos toward revolutionary struggle. In its March 30, 2026 statement, in observance of the NPA’s 57th anniversary, the CPP claimed that “taking up arms is a just and necessary cause” and that the crisis is “rousing the broad masses” toward revolutionary change.

We’ve seen this happen over and over again, and when political forces become consumed by power struggles, it always becomes a recruitment battlecry for the CPP-NPA-FDFP and it is always the ordinary Filipino who suffers the most.

The poor do not benefit from endless political wars or people’s war. Farmers do not eat ideology. Workers cannot feed their families with propaganda. While political camps fight for advantage, families are confronting more basic questions: how to buy rice, how to pay for transport, how to survive another week. 

In March 2026, the Social Weather Stations reported that 52 percent of Filipino families considered themselves poor, while 23.2 percent experienced involuntary hunger, up from 20.1 percent in November 2025. By April 2026, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that inflation had risen to 7.2 percent, with food inflation at 6.1 percent and rice inflation at 13.7 percent. Food, transport, and housing costs were among the biggest pressures on ordinary households.

More than just numbers or statistics, these are daily burdens carried by families who have no time for political theater because survival itself has become the more urgent battle.

The CPP-NPA-NDFP will never tire of presenting armed revolution as a solution to corruption and injustice. But after decades of conflict, millions and millions of former supporters find it evident that violence and division only leave deeper wounds on communities already burdened by poverty and neglect. Genuine reform cannot be built on endless hatred, instability, and destruction.

At the same time, government leaders must understand that public trust cannot be restored through denial, political maneuvering, or conflicting narratives. Filipinos today are more observant, more aware, and more critical. People can sense when institutions appear selective, politicized, or disconnected from the hardships of ordinary citizens.

The country does not need more division. It needs accountability, transparency, stability, and leadership that places the Filipino people above political survival. As former rebels, we know too well what happens when anger is left unanswered, when injustice is allowed to deepen, and when people are made to believe that violence is the only path to change. That is why we speak not to defend any political camp, but to remind the nation that every failure of leadership, every act of corruption, and every weakening of public trust creates openings for those who want to drag our people back into conflict.

Because when institutions weaken and politics becomes a battle for power alone, the nation itself becomes vulnerable. And once again, it is the ordinary Filipino who pays the price.