u/Carl_Bohydrates

It keeps getting worse day by day.

One day, our boss asked if I knew how to drive a manual vehicle. I said yes, thinking it was just a small favor. Eventually, I became the one driving during validation and inspection of upcoming barangay projects. While the others stayed behind, I was the one on the road, going from place to place, helping inspect the actual sites.

But after we returned, we had a meeting. That was when the unfairness became obvious.

Our boss told the three of us J.O. engineers to make the estimates and POWs for the projects we validated. There are 47 barangays, 5 of which are not under us, leaving 42 barangays divided among three engineers. The problem is, I was the one who physically went to inspect many of those sites because I was also acting as the driver and yet the workload distribution remained the same.

That’s when I understood the conflict between integrity and survival.

Integrity tells you to speak up when something is clearly unfair. Survival tells you to stay quiet because the person you should report to is also the head of the department. In systems like this, many employees already know what is wrong, but silence becomes part of survival.

And maybe that is why things never improve, not because people cannot see the unfairness, but because speaking against it often means risking the little stability you have.

PUNYETANG GOBYERNO TO

Inside our municipal office, I saw a procurement document for only **one Predator laptop** with just **500GB storage**, yet it cost **₱630,000**. What shocked me more was how easily it was accepted and signed without questions.

That moment reminded me of what is happening in our country.

Wisdom is knowing something is wrong. Accountability is having the courage to question it and take responsibility. Many people may already see the truth, but silence has become safer than honesty.

A country does not fail because people lack wisdom. It fails when wisdom exists without accountability.

Civil engineer ako sa umaga sa isang bayan sa region 2. Pagdating ng gabi, bumabyahe naman ako ng tricycle para may dagdag kita. Akala ng iba okay na basta may title ka, pero hindi nila alam kulang pa rin minsan kahit doble trabaho mo.

Habang naghihintay ng pasahero sa terminal, naka-open yung charts ko sa phone. Candles habang bumubuhos ulan, hoping one day trading naman ang magiging way out ko sa cycle na trabaho buong araw pero hirap pa rin makaangat.

Nakakapagod maging “stable” sa bansang kahit professional ka, parang isang emergency lang balik ka ulit sa wala.