POLITICS has a way to curtail the truth. It can twist narratives, suppress inconvenient facts, and manufacture stories that protect the powerful rather than the public. We see it in the way flood control projects are reported as “completed” despite communities still drowning every rainy season. We see it in how official testimonies are given not to clarify the truth but to distort and bend it. And we see it most painfully when honorable men — those entrusted with public confidence — do dishonorable deeds to preserve their political clout and advantage.
Consider how flood control anomalies repeatedly surface, year after year, with overpriced, substandard, or duplicate projects siphoning billions meant to protect families from disaster. Yet the reports are muffled, redirected, reworded — until the next typhoon exposes what politics tried to hide.
Or take the case of false testimonies. Some public officials boldly lie under oath, as when a senator filed a Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) that raised more questions than answers. He did a blatant lie disobeying the Omnibus Election Code by not declaring his donors, and yet has the audacity to ask, “Where is the law that prohibits the non-disclosure of my donors?” Ours is now becoming a political culture where dishonesty is tolerated, when the truth becomes negotiable, and accountability becomes optional.
Even more glaring is the willingness of leaders to weaponize accusation without evidence. Sen. Imee Marcos accused her own brother, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., of being an addict to cocaine — without presenting proof. Yet, in the same breath, she was silent when former President Rodrigo Duterte publicly admitted to long-term Fentanyl use and addiction, a substance far more potent and addictive. This is the hypocrisy of selective justice: truth is demanded only from political rivals but never from one’s own allies.
We saw this again when a religious group staged a massive rally claiming it was a stand for transparency and accountability. Yet that same movement had previously endorsed politicians now viewed as corrupt — senators with unresolved plunder cases, and even a vice president whose performance record has long been questioned. When those who once supported corruption suddenly claim to champion integrity, politics becomes not a moral force but a performance.
Still, amid this, there are flickers of light. President Marcos Jr.’s stated resolve to bring corrupt officials to justice can become a turning point. As of this writing the Department of Justice has already filed the first batch of offenders to the flood control mess, with more to follow. The Ombudsman’s firm stance to protect the interest of the people rather than shield offenders also signals that pockets of integrity remain alive in our institutions. These moments matter. They remind us that while politics can distort truth, it can never erase it. Truth will always resurrect and rise, no matter what.
Reality has a stubborn way of resurfacing. The floods that expose fake infrastructure, the lies that crumble under scrutiny, the accusations that backfire on those who weaponize them — these are the nation’s reminders that truth, though buried, is never and can never be dead.
All these realities remind us of a sobering truth: political narratives may shape opinions, but they cannot erase actual, live realities. Floods still rise, corruption still harms the public, and misinformation still divides communities. Yet true facts have a way of resurfacing, no matter how deeply buried or aggressively denied.
In the end, when reality and truth speak, politics and falsehood must listen. The nation moves forward only when leaders listen to what real life reveals — not to what political convenience invents. Truth may be delayed, distorted, or dismissed, but the truth must be pursued and followed as it remains as the only compass that can guide the Philippines toward genuine progress and justice./PN
