Who Lit the Fuse? Unraveling Manila’s Protest Chaos

Follow the Money: Unmasking the Puppeteers of Manila’s Violent Protests

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — September 23, 2025

MANILA is smoldering, and not just from the torched bikes on Recto Avenue. On September 21, 2025, tens of thousands marched in righteous fury over a P530 billion flood control scandal—money meant to save lives from drowning, siphoned into the pockets of contractors and their political enablers. But the story that grabbed headlines wasn’t the “ghost projects” that left communities submerged. It was the black-clad rioters, their ski masks and “One Piece” flags waving like props in a dystopian anime, setting fire to motorcycles and smashing the glass doors of a Sogo hotel. A 17-year-old from Tondo, “Adrian,” told the Inquirer he was there to fight corruption, but his face—and the burning bike—became the story, not the billions stolen. So, let’s ask the question no one wants to answer: Who benefits from a burning motorcycle?

The Facade vs. The Fire

The protests were a volcano of public rage, 130,000 strong, erupting over a scandal as old as Philippine politics itself: powerful people pocketing public funds while the poor wade through floodwaters. The Commission on Audit is dissecting 9,855 projects, many of them “ghosts” that exist only on paper. This is the just cause—real, raw, and undeniable. But then came the fire. A small cadre of masked rioters, hurling stones and Molotovs at Ayala Bridge and Mendiola, turned a movement into a meme. Their violence—113 arrests, 93 injured cops, a stabbed civilian—became the perfect distraction. Suddenly, the story wasn’t about the corrupt officials who let Manila drown; it was about “thugs” and “vandals.” The media lapped it up, and the powerful exhaled in relief. Isn’t it convenient how a few flaming bikes can eclipse a P530 billion heist?

Follow the Money, Not Just the Mob

Don’t be fooled by the chaos. Riots don’t just happen; they’re often choreographed. Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, surveying the wreckage on Recto, hinted at a Filipino-Chinese ex-politician and a lawyer bankrolling the destruction, calling their tactics “adik”-level cynical. Social media whispers of paid disruptors, and the pattern fits. Who has the motive, means, and opportunity?

Contractors named in the scandal, sweating under congressional probes, have billions to lose if audits turn into prosecutions. A little cash for masked agitators—say, a few thousand pesos per rioter—buys a lot of chaos to muddy the narrative.
Political rivals, maybe Duterte loyalists or Liberal Party holdouts, are itching to destabilize Bongbong Marcos’s administration before the 2028 elections.
Security apparatus insiders—agents provocateurs—have a history of sparking violence to justify crackdowns.

Their “patriotism” smells like tear gas and opportunism. Follow the money, not the mob, and you’ll find the puppeteers.

The Human Shield

The most gut-wrenching detail? Minors were among the 113 arrested, kids like Adrian, a 17-year-old from Tondo, who thought he was fighting for justice but ended up a pawn in someone’s game. Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro called it a “national security issue,” and he’s half-right—not because kids are a threat, but because someone’s exploiting them. Who gains from putting a teenager’s face on the evening news, tear-streaked and handcuffed, instead of a corrupt contractor’s? The powerful, that’s who. They hide behind these human shields, knowing a kid in a ski mask draws sympathy or scorn, not scrutiny of the real thieves. It’s moral cowardice, funding chaos that puts children in the crosshairs of water cannons and criminal records. Shame on the adults who orchestrated this, and double shame if they’re the same ones who pocketed the flood control funds.

The Meme-ification of Revolt

Then there’s the “One Piece” flag, a skull-and-crossbones straight out of an anime, waving over the riots like a TikTok filter on a tragedy. It’s not just a quirky detail; it’s a red flag. The same symbol popped up in deadly protests in Indonesia and Nepal, a social media-fueled spillover that screams coordinated aesthetics, if not outright orchestration. Sure, it’s empowering for youth to rally under a shared pop-culture banner, but it’s also a gift to those who want to dismiss the movement as a cosplay rebellion. A flag from a Japanese cartoon doesn’t clarify a demand for accountability; it makes it easier to paint protesters as unserious kids playing at revolution. Is this organic youth culture or a clever distraction, imported to dilute the message? Either way, it’s the corrupt who benefit when a P530 billion scandal is reduced to a viral hashtag.

The Inevitable Crackdown

Mark my words: the burning motorcycle will be the excuse for a crackdown. Mayor Moreno’s already vowing that the 113 arrested “will regret it,” and the Manila Police District’s “full alert” status smells like a prelude to curfews or assembly bans. Watch politicians seize this moment to push “law and order” measures, maybe even surveillance laws, while the flood control probes quietly stall. The real violence isn’t a trashed Sogo hotel or a burned bike; it’s the “ghost projects” that let people drown, the billions stolen while officials shrug. Yet the crackdown will target the Adrians of Manila, not the suited thieves in air-conditioned offices. If Marcos’s administration uses this to dodge accountability, it’ll be a betrayal of democracy itself, echoing the Martial Law anniversary the protests marked.

The Unsettling Answer

So, who benefits from a burning motorcycle? Not the 130,000 who marched for justice. Not the kids like Adrian, now facing charges. Not the flood victims still wading through muck. The winners are the contractors who might escape prosecution, the politicians who’ll dodge accountability, and the opportunists who’ll use this chaos to tighten their grip. The motorcycle burns, but it’s Philippine democracy that’s at risk of going up in flames. If the public lets the fire distract from the flood of corruption, the powerful will laugh all the way to the bank—while Manila drowns again.