*Dr. Rodolfo John Ortiz Teope, PhD, EdD
Last night, as I watched the news of Cebu’s earthquake, I felt my chest tighten. I saw mothers clutching their children in the dark, fathers desperately trying to pull debris with bare hands, elderly people trembling as they were carried to safety. Their cries were not just echoes of fear — they were cries of betrayal. Betrayal by leaders who promised to protect them, yet gave them nothing but hollow speeches and substandard infrastructures that collapsed at the first shake of the earth.
My heart aches to ask: When will we, as a people, ever learn? How many more of our brothers and sisters must be buried under rubble before we refuse to elect corrupt officials who care only for their pockets? How many times must we watch our houses crumble before we say “enough” to government appointees who sell out their honor to construction firms that build for profit, not for safety? These firms, hand in hand with fly-by-night insurance companies, leave families with nothing but grief when disasters strike — no justice, no security, only pain.
I cannot stop thinking of the children whose schools cracked, the patients whose hospitals shook, the families whose homes fell apart. These are not mere accidents. These are the direct results of corruption that has festered for decades. Every nail stolen, every bag of cement diluted, every steel bar replaced with something cheaper — all of it adds up. And in moments like this, it is the poor who pay the ultimate price with their lives.
We Filipinos are resilient, yes, but why must we always be asked to endure? Why must we keep rising from the ruins when those who caused our suffering sit comfortably in their mansions? Resilience without justice is cruelty. Compassion without accountability is hypocrisy. And healing without learning is meaningless.
Cebu’s earthquake is more than a calamity. It is a lesson written in tears and blood. And yet, I fear we will let it fade like all the others — forgotten when the next campaign truck of a corrupt politician with their largely names being advertise arrives with relief goods and empty promises. Mother Nature has already spoken through the rains, through the floods, and now through the tremors. She is exposing our shame, but still we choose silence.
And let us not forget: PHIVOLCS has long warned that Luzon, including Metro Manila, may one day be hit by the dreaded “Big One.” Combine that with Senate revelations that countless buildings, roads, and public infrastructures have been substandardly built just to allow kickbacks — and the picture is terrifying. If corruption continues, the Big One will not just be an earthquake; it will be a massacre of lives and the destruction of our very future. It is not the fault of nature — it will be the fault of man’s greed.
I write this with a heavy heart, praying that this tragedy will finally awaken us. That we will turn our mourning into courage, our grief into resolve. Because the truth is simple: it is not the earthquake and floods that destroys us. It is corruption, and our refusal to break free from it.
May the entire nation learn from this tragedy, and may it open the eyes of our leaders — most especially the President — to undertake true reforms or even make personal sacrifices if needed, for the sake of the nation. For leadership is not about comfort or power, it is about service, humility, and sacrifice for the people.
To the people of Cebu and the nearby provinces: may your tears water the seeds of change. May your pain ignite a fire in all of us to finally demand leaders who value lives more than contracts, dignity more than profit. And may God, who is our refuge and strength, cradle you in His arms until we, as a nation, learn to protect one another as He intended us to.
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