Three days before the May 9, 2022 presidential election, I warned that this was not a political contest, but a spiritual battle. Many shrugged, rolled their eyes, and said, “That’s naïve.”
Naïve? Look around you now. P1.4 trillion corruption annual losses. This is the price for our arrogance.
The Question We Are Too Cowardly to Ask
Why would God allow the Light of Asia to be governed by leaders who mock Him, spit on truth, steal with impunity, and weaponized lies?
Scripture answers without blinking:
“[God] punished His people by handing them over to their attackers…” (2 Kings 17:20)
“When God judges a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.” — John Calvin
Cardinal Sin said Marcos Sr. was judgment. Well, congratulations, Philippines. This time, we asked for his son.
Why judgment? Because we abandoned the poor. Because we worshipped charisma over character. Because we traded discernment for TikTok edits.
As if God were saying: “If this is the poison you want, drink it.”
Before May 9, 2022: A Heaven-Sent Test We Flunked Miserably
Two questions hovered over our nation:
1. Would God show mercy?
2. Would the Filipino people finally humble themselves?
Instead of humility, we persisted on pride. Instead of prayer, we elevated propaganda. Instead of repentance, we chose revisionism.
God did not blind us. We blinded ourselves.
The Moral Rot We Pretended Was “Fake News”
You don’t need to be a theologian to see corruption. You don’t need a PhD to smell decent. But somehow, millions of Filipinos suddenly became allergic to truth.
You cannot claim to love God and applaud corruption. You cannot claim patriotism and reward theft. You cannot reject evil when you vote for its beneficiaries.
Let’s stop pretending: We weren’t deceived. We were willing participants.
Two Destinies—We Walked into the Worst One.
Scenario 1: If We Chose Repentance
We could have exorcized the Marcos curse. We could have broken the Duterte’s governance circus. We could have restored dignity to public office.
Scenario 2: If We Chose Arrogance
We would vote for the dictator’s son and convince ourselves we were being “practical.” We would baptize deceit, normalize robbery, and romanticize tyranny.
And on May 9, 2022 presidential election, we did exactly that. We weren’t nabudol. We revealed exactly who we are. The Philippines chose judgment.
Philippines, do you know where you’re going to?
Where are we dragging ourselves? We are not marching toward progress. We are stumbling backward into the same pit our grandparents escaped. We are repeating history like addicts returning to their poison.
This national suffering is not random. It is spiritual mirror held to our faces.
One could almost hear God saying: “This is what happens when you choose lies over truth. Look at it. Own it. Then decide if you want to stay here.”
The Prodigal Nation (Yes, That’s Us)
The prodigal son didn’t change because he suddenly became wise. He changed because hunger beat the stupidity out of him.
We are the prodigal son in the pigsty. We squandered democracy. We kissed the feet of strongmen. We swallowed propaganda like candy.
And now famine has come: Economic crunch. Moral drought. Truth bankruptcy.
A Second Chance—But It Won’t Be Cheap
There is noise online—a possible special election, and a brewing storm for 2028. But second chances are not handed out like freebies. They demand repentance. They demand courage. They demand breaking the cycle we have defended for decades.
God is shaking the Philippines violently because gentle whispers did not work on us anymore.
Will God Give Us Another Leni?
Only God knows.
Leni herself is not a messiah; she never claimed to be. But she became, for many, a symbol—of what righteousness can look like in public service, of how quiet integrity can stand tall against noisy corruption, and of how goodness can still inspire a nation battered by cynicism.
But here is the more brutal truth:
God can send us another righteous leader—but if we are still in love with lies, we will crucify that divine offering again.
The problem is not the absence of good leaders. The problem is the absence of a morally awake people.
We do not suffer from a leadership crisis. We suffer from a discernment crisis, a memory crisis, and—let us stop denying it—a spiritual crisis.
A Filipino Sisyphus Story
We suffer from a discernment crisis because we keep mistaking the familiar for the good, the charismatic for the righteous. We suffer from a memory crisis because we forget too quickly—our wounds fade, and our oppressors return in polished form.
And yes, we suffer from a spiritual crisis, because we have grown accustomed to darkness and learned to negotiate with it.
It is the Filipino Sisyphus story in real time: we push the stone of our national hope up the mountain—only to let it roll back down through our own complacency, our own forgetfulness, our own refusal to confront evil for what it is.
Until we learn discernment, remember truth, and heal spiritually, we will keep repeating Sisyphus’ curse—forever struggling, forever starting over, forever wondering why the summit never arrives.
Final Warning
We got a punisher because we insisted on one. The suffering we feel today is the echo of our own vote.
But judgment is not the last chapter—unless we decide to stay in it. God stands at the door of mercy, but He will not drag us through it.
The next move is ours. Return—or repent. Repent—or rot. Wake up—or sink deeper.
Where to?
Forward to mercy—or back to bondage?
Content & editing put together in collaboration with ChatGPT
Head collage photos courtesy of ChatGPT image creator, iStock, & design by Canva
Still photos courtesy of Facebook, Pexels, Politiko, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, UBC Arts - The University of British Columbia, Nikkei Asia, Time Magazine, Philstar, Miscellaneous Ramblings, Adobe Stock, & ChatGPT image creator.
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