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The 1986 Revolution toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, who had accumulated billions of pesos of wealth throughout his tenure. Aside from that, there were thousands of human rights violations against protestors. Unfortunately, the vision of a “new democratic republic” that was void of corruption and plunder, never came to fruition. Until now, we cannot escape the cycle of thievery within the government, and even after multiple uprisings, we are still taken advantage of. The Pork Barrel Scandal in 2013 exposed systematic corruption—public funds were not allocated towards NGOs or agriculture, but inside the pockets of shady business people and government officials. With the help of social media, a crowd of 100,000 protestors echoed their frustrations in the streets of Manila and other major cities. The public knew what they were fighting for—accountability. Ten billion pesos worth of funds were stolen from our taxpayers, and what angered the people more… our lawmakers were involved. Now, ghost projects have taken the form of flood control, and the same issues are playing out once again. Our taxpayers’ money? Stolen. Where? The pockets of politicians. Even after our efforts, we have failed to find accountability. Many might wonder, are we hopeless at this point? Not entirely. The public clamor surrounding these recent events is a promising step—the next one is to stop choosing sides and reject our partiality. We have to look at these problems for what they are, and on top of that, understand the true principles of good governance. Sometimes, it seems as if the people have lost touch with what the true meaning of democracy is, where simply speaking up to criticize the government is frowned upon. Why should we silence ourselves? Many have said that the Philippines is heading in the wrong direction, but let us not overshadow our aspirations with pessimism. We should not only fight for change, but also understand what we are fighting for. We voiced our anger in the past. We protested. But true change is found in our values—accountability cannot be achieved if we fail to understand integrity; justice cannot be found if we make exemptions; and most importantly, we cannot make progress if we cling to personality rather than principles.