A young and ambitious member of the Philippines House of Representatives is making a name for himself right now.
His name is Timothy “Tim” Cayton and he is used to be the mayor of a small municipality in the province of Nueva Viscaya province, a community called Dupax del Norte. In 2023, he was voted the “Most Oustanding Mayor of the Philippines”.
Tim Cayton makes a lot of efforts. He tries his best to be seen as a fellow who cares for the people. The tireless, noble “servant of the people” trope.
His social media presence is all about how much of a swell guy he is… but what people forget is that, in 2024 when he began his candidacy to run for higher office? He sold his soul to an Australian mining corporation, Woggle Corp. They paid for his electoral campaign. Suddenly Cayton and members of his family drove around in expensive Toyota cars with bulletproof windows…
The exploration rights to the mining corporation were granted. The mountain communities, people whose lives Cayton had sworn to protect, rose up in defiance.
Local activists barricaded the roads and refused to let the foreign mining company enter the area. Police was called in. As of January 22, 2026, several prominent community leaders are in jail.
And he proposed some vague bill in congress to protect some areas in Nueva Viscaya by having them designated “vital watershed areas”.
The bill was purposely vague, of course, and not specific. Nothing happened. Nothing was stopped. He took no actual action to protect his people, but he acted as if he cared, then ignored it in all his social media posts afterwards even as crackdowns on his community intensified. But Cayton could now point out that he did something. Tried something. In reality, it was all strictly performative. Local courts sued the activists, local judges sentenced the anti-mining protesters, police swept in and made arrests. Took down the barricade. Kicked the native population out of their ancestral lands.
And what do the people do, the locals? Did they rise up in anger, did they voice out their betrayal, did they comment angrily or snappily underneath his social media posts, shattering Cayton’s carefully crafted self-aggrandizing narrative?
No. They did no such thing. They continue to take selfies with their mayor-turned-congressman. They continue to smile, and like his posts, and fawn over him on social media. Because he’s young, and he says he’s different, and the majority of them are bootlickers at heart, easily fooled with a little dazzle, some bread and games, a local town fiesta with some roasted pig on a spit…
Why is corruption prominent in the Philippines? Because Filipino people are some of the most forgiving people on earth. To their own detriment. They are easily fooled, easily distracted, and even when some of their own neighbors stand up and expose corruption in their midst, the politician will just point his finger and them, denounce them as “communists” and they’ll lap up every word he says as he continues to sell them down the river for scraps and destroy the future of their children and grandchildren.
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