When people rise, no power can silence them. People do not gather in the streets just to make noise—they gather to fight for their future and hold those in power accountable. With students flooding Luneta in the “Baha sa Luneta,” or citizens, workers, and church leaders uniting in the “Trillion Peso March” at EDSA People Power Shrine to EDSA People Power Monument.
No matter how much noise you make, though, you’ll always hear those people who’ll say, “Wala rin namang mangyayari, kahit mag-rally pa kayo.” A phrase that reeks with cynicism, one that underestimates the power collective action has. But if there’s anything history has proven, it is that it’s the people gathered on the streets who are the ones fuelling change.
To say that rallies don’t matter is to erase the struggles, the sacrifices of millions who dared to gather, dared to resist, and dared to demand. The workers that pushed for rights, the women that demanded equality, the students who shouted against budget cuts. When Marcos fell in February 25,1986, it wasn’t because dictatorship suddenly ran out of fuel, it was because of Filipinos who desired for change, the people who wanted to live freer lives.
Those in power doesn’t fear apathy—it’s when people started being educated. Protests expose corruption, they shine light on injustice, and they make seats of people in power uncomfortable. That discomfort matters. It is pressure, and pressure is what cracks the walls built by greed and abuse.
Every placards raised, every chant shouted, every sweat in the street is a reminder that Filipinos are watching, that they are not content with being robbed or silenced. Every rally plants seeds. Seeds that grow into movements, intro revolutions, into reforms that shake even the most arrogant regimes.
The so-called “boomer take” that nothing will change is moronic, because it teaches resignation. It tells the young not to bother, to stay quiet, to leave everything as it is. But resignation is exactly what allows corruption to flourish unchecked. If the youth believe nothing will change, then those in power win without lifting a finger. That is why today’s rallies matter so much. They are more than noise; they are acts of defiance against hopelessness. They are proof that the spirit of People Power is not locked in the past but continues to burn in every generation willing to fight.
So when students wade through floods to demand justice, and when thousands march in EDSA to cry out against trillion-peso theft, it is not useless—it is necessary. It is democracy in motion. And if older generations say rallies won’t change anything, then let us answer with conviction: change never comes from those who wait, it comes from those who march. The streets have always been where history is written, and the people, not the powerful, will always hold the final word.


