“PROPAGANDAS I’m not falling for: Owalas, podcasts, 10-step skincare routine, pointless degrees, and Filipino time,” says in another video as I continue to doom scroll through TikTok. The word "propaganda" has been incorporated into a TikTok trend as a lighthearted list of a person’s dislikes; however, I fear that the trend has obscured the deeper meaning of the word. 

     So, what is Propaganda? It is biased or misleading information aimed at promoting or publicizing a particular political cause or point of view, a stark contrast to the trend most people are participating in. 

     And do you know which propaganda we are continuously falling for? The idea of ‘lesser evil’ politicians who take seat after seat every election, and the glorification of bare minimum services to the Filipino people. 

     Philippine politics is a storm of events after the results of the midterm election last May, the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, and the Marcos-Duterte war, where we are all getting crushed in the eye of the storm. Amid it, social media outlets continuously praise politicians whose acts and services are clean, honest, and competent, such as Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto. Now, his services are commendable and impactful, benefitting and inspiring many, especially the youth. 

     But why does he have to be a minority? Why are people so stunned when a politician turns out not to be corrupt? 

     We tend to normalize and romanticize the bare minimum of having a clean track record when we should be asking for more and wanting more. The bar on Filipino politicians is extremely low, and not being corrupt tends to be something unexpected. 

     According to the 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index, the Philippines ranked 114th out of 180 countries. The country is perceived as having a higher level of corruption than 113 countries. The country garnered 33 points, which is far from the average, noting that zero is highly corrupt. For a decade, the score remained in the 30s.

     Furthermore, according to Philstar, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and International Monetary Fund estimated that corruption in the Philippines diverts 20% of the budget to politicians’ pockets. We are so accustomed to corruption and fraud that we no longer expect anything better from them. We should be because we have the right as Filipino citizens and because they have a democratic responsibility to the people who have elected them.

     During elections, the choice between candidates vying for positions seems to always narrow down to who would covet less from the people. We have reached a point where we lowered our principles to give a select few a better chance, which also meant settling on the lesser evil. But do we truly deserve politicians who are of "lesser" evil? Are they truly "less" evil when they have been plaguing the country's political landscape for countless terms? 

     Less never meant good; lesser evil meant the evil we could swallow, the evil we could tolerate, the evil we are more familiar with. 

     We are so used to emptying our pockets for unfulfilled promises that we applaud at the smallest of acts. The Filipino people deserve more than the crumbs of the government’s luxury. The real propaganda we should never fall for is settling for less and the bare minimum when it comes to government services. To fall for this propaganda is to admit defeat when we should continue to fight for every citizen in the country. 

     So, what propaganda are you falling for?