CHECKMATING THE TRUTH?
“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” — Ephesians 5:11
I have always been intrigued by chess, though for years I kept away from the board — I could never quite work out how I was being outplayed, again and again. It was our nephew, whom I consider our own son, who finally drew me back to it. Together with a former councilor of ours in Taguig, he began to teach me. And what they taught me was this: chess is a game of strategy, but more than that, it is a game of positioning. Get your pieces onto the right squares, and victory can become all but certain.
The rules are simple enough. The pieces are moved across the board, and someone decides where they go. Every piece has its value — but in the end, the whole game turns on a single purpose: to protect your king, and to capture theirs.
The game now facing our country is far more serious than any played on sixty-four squares. But it begins with the same question. Are we players — or are we merely pieces?
Because if we are honest about what is happening, there are powerful interests — the kings and queens of this board, some of our political and business elite — who would prefer that the Filipino people remain pieces upon it. The rest of us are cast in supporting roles: pawns, knights, bishops, rooks. The knights are government officials and security forces; the bishops, our religious leaders; the rooks, the towers of media. Each one positioned — knowingly or not — to keep the kings and queens in place and protected: moved when convenient, sacrificed when necessary, forgotten once the game is over. And what is the game being played? It is not the building of a nation. It is the building of private fortunes.
So let me be clear about our stand. We did not take this position to seize power. This is not Game of Thrones. If it were only a contest for the throne, then let thirteen senators choose another Senate President tomorrow — the leadership question could be settled in a single afternoon. But that was never the real issue. The real issue is why there is such determination to keep the truth about the flood control scandal from coming out: why the rush to control committees, why the pressure, why the attacks, why the endless distractions — why everything except a serious effort to answer the questions being asked. Questions we all promised would be answered.
They thought like chess players. Their pieces were in perfect position, the cover-up all but complete, and then — total victory, perhaps a charter change to seal it. Everyone content. Maletas all around.
Every Filipino knows what corruption does. But this flood control scandal was so vast, so brazen, that it woke a sleeping nation. And so the new game is to lull that nation back to sleep — while pointing to a chosen few who can be made to take the fall.
This scandal carries grave consequences. The funds meant to hold back the floods became a flood of their own. They flooded our homes and our business districts. They flooded the classrooms we should have built and the hospitals we should have funded. They washed away harvests and livelihoods, swamped the engines of our growth, and eroded — most corrosive of all — the people’s trust in their own government.
The victims are not the dilawan or the DDS, not administration or opposition, not one party or another. They are simply Filipinos. The victim is all of us, as a nation — our identity, our future, our freedom.
Corruption is a tax, and like a plague it is contagious. It is paid by the honest so that the greedy may fill their pockets — and it is collected from every citizen, whatever his politics, whatever his color. That is why this fight is bigger than any sector, any group, any party, any region — and far bigger than any senator or any Senate leadership dispute.
Some have criticized me for invoking the names of those who came before us, and that is their right. But if those words began even a single conversation about accountability, transparency, and truth, then some good has already come of them. And if not — then pardon me for continuing to raise the symbols that belong more to our people than to any family or faction, in the service of the truth. *Kung hindi ninyo gagamitin, hihiramin muna namin upang ipagpatuloy ang laban.*
My June 12 message was meant to honor them — the heroes, their families, and their sacrifices. To some, it was an inspiration; to others, an offense. I intended neither flattery nor insult — only the truth. And the truth, spoken plainly, is meant to wake us, not to wound us. *Gising! May laban pa tayo — kahit nasa kanila na ang lahat ng kapangyarihan at kayamanan sa mundo. Laban lang.*
But in all honesty, what matters now is not who wins an argument online, or on mainstream media — that is a sideshow at the edge of the board. The real game is being played elsewhere, on a board most people never see.
What matters is that we keep up the good fight — that we keep asking the right questions, keep demanding the complete answers, and keep pursuing the truth even when it becomes uncomfortable, even when it threatens our own ambitions. Accountability is not something we wear when the cameras are on; it is what we practice after they leave and the pressure begins.
And no committee of the Senate should ever become a place where difficult questions go to die — where investigations are turned into instruments for laundering reputations or burying inconvenient facts beneath procedure and delay.
The power to investigate is not a privilege to be guarded. It is a trust granted by the Filipino people, and it belongs to them.
Whether senator or citizen, no one should allow himself to be made a pawn in another man’s game. The pawn, after all, is the piece most easily spent — pushed forward when useful, sacrificed without a second thought, forgotten once it has served its purpose. I say this to all twenty-four of us: the true test of where you stand is not how others perceive you, but how you see yourself in the mirror — and, more importantly, how GOD sees your heart.
I know that these words offend those who are used to hearing only the echoes of their own social networks, and I accept that. But history teaches a hard lesson. Those who defend what is right are often loud, imperfect, abrasive, inconvenient; those who surrender to what is wrong are usually silent. That silence may buy a season of comfort — even a reprieve from prison. It may avoid conflict and preserve relationships. But it always carries a price, because evil rarely announces its arrival with a marching band. It advances the way a position is lost on the board — sometimes in a single blunder, but more often through a hundred small surrenders: through accommodation, through compromise, through fear and intimidation, through each of us telling ourselves that someone else will speak up, someone else will act, someone else will carry the burden — until no one does.
We too are imperfect — but we are awake, and silent no more.
Finally, long after the question of Senate leadership is resolved — and it will be resolved — the corruption will remain. The floodwaters will continue to rise when it rains. The missing funds will still have to be accounted for. The Filipino people will still demand answers. And one day our children will ask what we did when the truth was still within reach.
They will ask not out of curiosity, but out of necessity — because what we do today will determine the country they inherit ten, twenty-five, forty years from now.
So at some point, every citizen must decide. Will you let yourself be moved by events — or will you insist on seeing the board for yourself? That choice belongs to every Filipino. And it may be the most important move any of us ever makes.
If the events that began on May 11 were merely another round of Game of Thrones, then we deserve to be cursed and mocked. But if they are the first moves of a stand against the darkness — against tyranny, corruption, and greed — then join us.
Pray. Discern. Comment. Move. Laban! Let our voices be heard.
Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains.
Blessed Independence Weekend, mahal nating Pilipinas.