From the Battle of San Mateo in 1896 to the ringing of the UP Carillon Tower Bells in 2016, September once again awakens the wounds of corruption buried deep in the Filipino consciousness.
In this season of political dissonance, public outrage demands accountability for the corruption in the nation’s flood control projects. The anger, first felt in the digital square, spilled into universities, and on September 21 in two venues that Filipinos in modern history have gathered to demand change: Luneta and the People’s Power Monument (PPM) on EDSA.
Aside from the rallies of Baha sa Luneta in Manila and the Trillion Peso March along EDSA, various civic and religious, artists and many others also organized protests in the provinces of Baguio, Cebu, Pampanga and Bacolod to express their outrage.
On September 1, businesswoman Sarah Discaya attended the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigating the anomalous mismanagement of government flood control projects in the country. Discaya’s revelations of kickbacks, along with those of disgraced DPWH officials, amounting to billions of pesos have left Filipinos furious.
September 2025 bears striking parallels of government excess and public resistance across the region. From the Gen-Z–led uprising against Nepal’s government earlier this month to the recent outcry in East Timor over lawmakers’ plans to grant themselves free SUVs, the message resounds with clarity: people are no longer willing to tolerate corruption dressed as governance.
How Filipinos rise up in different eras
“History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes” is a quote often attributed to American humorist Mark Twain. The echoes of historical rhymes have been felt serendipitously throughout the country as of late, and we should listen to it.
The month of September has seemingly played the role of seer over the course of Philippine history. It has witnessed uprisings, social upheavals, and the creation of a national identity.
From the gallantry of Gabriella Silang in the north, the Ilocanos’ bravery in mounting the Basi Revolt, to our nation’s birth in Malolos where our national heroes established sovereignty over our Spanish conquerors, time and time again, Filipinos have banded together to end injustices and reclaim their dignity.
In September 1763, Maria Josefa “Gabriela” Silang led the rebellion against Spain in Ilocos during the interlude of British occupation in the Philippines, taking up the mantle after the assassination of her husband, Diego Silang, by fellow Filipino Miguel Vicos four months prior.
Despite belonging to the principales (the landed, often educated class in colonial Philippines), the Silangs called for the eradication of the abusive taxation from the Spanish officials, particularly the polo y servicio or forced labor without compensation.
Alas, her valiance would face an untimely defeat later that year when she and her followers were publicly executed, but Gabriela Silang’s campaign to lead a military junta engaged in guerrilla warfare was a remarkable feat.
Even though uprisings weren’t commonplace, they weren’t completely foreign in colonial Philippines.
As early as the 1600s, indigenous peoples on the islands repelled the Spanish conquest. The Igorots in the Cordillera Region come to mind because while their lowland brethren were often touted for winning against their oppressors in 1898, they had been fighting for their liberty all those 333 years, and won it decisively.
In his work Encyclopedia of the Philippines (1936), Zoilo M. Galang, the first Filipino who published a novel in English, there were reports of at least a hundred isolated revolts since the beginning of the Spanish regime in the country. The problem was, they were all sporadic, and they lacked the scale needed for a revolution.
On September 16, 1807, the people of Piddig, Ilocos Norte came together. They were led by Pedro Mateo and Salarogo Ambaristo to rise up against the Spanish colonial government in response to the prohibition and monopoly of producing and selling basi, a fermented sugarcane wine native to the region. For the Ilocanos, this was not only about losing their livelihood but also a perversion of a distinct cultural identity.
Often regarded unfairly as a short-lived uprising (it was quelled in less than two weeks), not a lot of people talk about how this was a turning point in democracy itself. The Basi Revolt exhibited what a localized protest could look like.
With cries of “Away with the Spaniards!” echoing as drums rolled from one province to the next, their march toward the provincial capital of Vigan, Ilocos Sur, to demand an end to the Spanish monopoly endures as one of the most inspiring chapters of the Filipinos’ struggle for freedom.
History, recurring
Call it purely coincidental or examples of historic recurrence, but September has indeed seen Filipinos rising up to fight against insurmountable odds.
• September 21, 1972 — President Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation 1081, placing the entire Philippines under martial law. Though it was officially dated Sept. 21, the public announcement came two days later on Sept. 23, when media outlets were shut down, opposition leaders arrested, and military checkpoints set up. Protests followed throughout his dictatorship marked by human rights abuses and large-scale corruption amounting to $10 billion. The Marcos family’s corruption culminated in their exile during the Edsa People Power Revolution in 1986.
• September 16, 1991—The Philippine Senate votes to reject the US Bases Treaty by a close vote (12–11), ending nearly a century of US military presence. It was a bold assertion of sovereignty, sometimes referred to as “a new declaration of independence.”
• September 21, 2016—The University of the Philippines Carillon Tower Bells rang to mark the beginning of protests against the extrajudicial killings under then President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. It also marked the 44th anniversary of martial law. Called a “sonic protest,” the bells signified a “clarion call” for vigilance against authoritarianism.
September continues to be a month of memory, resistance, and warning. This time, it is the rot of corruption that has roused the nation’s anger.
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