Power is still there. Direction is not.
This is the paradox of Philippine politics today. Authority remains intact. The presidency stands. Congress functions. The machinery of government hums. And yet, for citizens, governance feels absent.
What we are witnessing is not a collapse of power, but its misuse through distraction.
Politics has become an echo chamber. Impeachment threats are floated and recycled. Constitutional change is dangled without clarity. Alliances shift in public view. Statements multiply, but outcomes do not. The system looks busy, almost frantic, yet oddly unproductive.
For citizens, this is not entertainment. It is erosion.
Political noise reshapes daily life in subtle but relentless ways. Uncertainty creeps into household decisions. Businesses hesitate. Employers delay. Prices rise faster than wages. These are not theoretical effects. They are lived realities. Noise is not neutral. It taxes the public psychologically and economically.
The deeper damage is to trust. When every allegation sounds strategic, accountability loses credibility. Impeachment, meant to be exceptional, now registers as routine theater. Citizens no longer know when institutions are acting in good faith or simply performing for leverage. Over time, skepticism hardens into disengagement.
This is how democracies weaken, not through repression, but through exhaustion.
Against this backdrop, the Marcos administration remains formally strong. It has the numbers. It has the offices. It has the authority. But it is governing in survival mode.
The administration’s energy is consumed by managing threats rather than shaping the future. Agenda control has slipped. Instead of setting priorities, Malacañang responds to narratives it did not choose. Each response narrows the field of action further. Risk becomes the enemy. Boldness is postponed.
This is not paralysis born of incompetence. It is paralysis born of caution.
Cabinet officials become careful. Agencies wait for political cover. Policies move, but slowly, stripped of ambition. Announcements outpace execution. Reforms are technically alive but politically starved. What citizens see is motion without meaning.
The most dangerous loss is not popularity, but directional authority. When leadership no longer defines where the country is going, power becomes maintenance rather than momentum. Stability turns into stagnation.
Citizens feel this gap acutely. They are asked to be patient while politics argues with itself. They are told stability is an achievement while daily life grows harder. Over time, patience wears thin. Not into protest, but into quiet withdrawal. People disengage because engagement no longer promises change.
Institutions also suffer. When crisis language is constant, seriousness evaporates. Everything feels temporary. Nothing feels consequential. Politics begins to resemble performance rather than stewardship.
This is the real cost of political noise. Not the threat to those in power, but the alienation of those governed.
Power without direction does not fail dramatically. It drifts. It manages decline politely. It survives without solving.
And history is unforgiving to governments that mistake survival for success.
The country does not need louder politics. It needs purposeful governance. Clear priorities. Visible trade-offs. Decisions that signal where we are headed, not just what we are avoiding.
Power is still there. But until direction is restored, it is power talking to itself, while citizens wait for leadership that remembers why it exists.
