EDITOR’S NOTE: With this section called Young Voices, CoverStory opens space for young people feeling their way into the world and trying to formulate the rhyme and reason behind the paths they choose to take.
In the beginning of time, when survival was the center of living, greed and prejudice prevailed. From the land, from resources, and unfortunately, from within its community, a dangerous plague named the Black Venom of Malevolence spreads. This plague did not announce itself with melodic phrase or immediate destruction; it grew slowly, almost subtly, through decisions, actions, and inactions that seemed small at first, yet amplified over generations.
As evolution took place for millions of years, the once small plague began to outgrow our land, marking each territory, spreading silently across societies, and implanting itself into our very genes, making it the embodiment, the core of human races, a dark inheritance passed down without consent, shaping the instincts, desires, and behaviors of humanity itself.
This potion of venom would push us beyond the threshold chains of limitations if we let ourselves drown in its black pit. Some regular beings could control it, resisting the temptations it offers and recognizing the consequences of surrendering to its influence. Others could dive deeply, enjoying uncontrolled free will, letting themselves be covered by its venom; resulting in massive destruction to others, families, communities, and entire regions.
Mammon
We call them the Mammon’s servant, who bows before golds and crowns, who places wealth and power above morality, who justifies their actions with logic that only benefits themselves. These servants are what or who we see on national television as ordinary politicians, officeholders, and public figures. They are, however, not called Mammon’s servants publicly, but their true nature hides behind the title “public servant,” a label meant to inspire trust, confidence, and loyalty, while the venom flows quietly through their decisions, through their policies, and through the systems they control.
These so called “public servants” serve the wealth from the taxes of every Filipino; they are entrusted with funds meant to alleviate poverty, improve infrastructure, provide education, healthcare, and public services; yet often their service prioritizes political alliances, personal gain, or maintaining power, rather than genuinely helping those they are supposed to serve.
They said government and politicians are the key to lift our “baggage” of poverty, yet in reality, they are often the ones who add stones to ours, by approving projects that fail, misallocating funds, creating ghost employees on payrolls, and delaying essential services in ways that seem legal but remain deeply immoral.
Resiliency
And in the most critical situations we’ve dealt with, resiliency is our greatest weapon to showcase, making their greatest failures. The patience, perseverance, and determination of ordinary people expose the cracks in a system designed to protect only a few, while the majority endure slow suffering silently, yet with remarkable strength and quiet dignity.
Every peso misused, every flood project destroyed, every ghost employment, every unnecessary unexplainable and uncertain step, every contract awarded without transparency, like a slow rain pouring down in our dried, cracked land and letting us drown by flood, by neglect, and by their corruption, leaving citizens to pick up pieces of a broken system while life continues around them.
The irony floods our social media as we post and share our struggles, our small victories, our frustrations, and our calls for accountability. But we continue to survive, to continue, to crawl, for our own loved ones, for our family, and for our country, bearing the weight of generations of neglected promises, systemic failures, and the unending challenge of living under a governance that often seems indifferent.
After decades of demanding change, after protests, petitions, and collective efforts, we still remain trapped in this system of intellectual bankruptcy. However, our resilience, endurance, and unwillingness to completely surrender to despair remain as subtle defiance against the pervasive venom, a quiet testament that life continues even amidst the shadow of corruption, greed, and structural failure.
We will keep on fighting for justice and life that we, Filipino people deserve. Now, and forever.
Kyla Rose M. Dioso is a 20-year-old staff member of The Catalyst, an official student publication of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Antique in Sibalom. She says she writes about societal issues, culture, preservation of history, family’s importance, and women’s rights.
