The latest scandal of corruption to hit society in the face is the obscene and anger-inducing abuse of privilege by wealthy convicts at the Bilibid prison, courtesy of officials there.

Is it just me, or is everybody wondering why the guy in charge of Bilibid, a guy named Bucayo (I don’t even want to know his first name), hasn’t been sacked? The excuse given is that he cooperated in planning the lightning raid on the Bilibid premises, where they found indecent amounts of cash and gadgets that would make even the wealthy envy.

In some societies, like Japan (and even the United States) people in charge where scandals break out resign outright, no ifs, no buts.

But the broader concern here is that for the past two years, we Filipinos have discovered how rampant corruption has been in our country. We’ve discovered how our own public officials have been sucking the national treasury dry of funds by systematically plundering the people’s money for their own extravagant use.

We’ve always had an inkling that corruption is an integral part of government. We’ve always known that our public officials are crooked and are up to no good once they get elected. We’ve always suspected that public officials have been making money out of their being in office, for how else to explain that practically all government officials live handsomely.

But we had no idea of the extent of the way public officials have been stealing from us. We had no idea how extensive the plunder has been taking place.

Until the past two years when all hell broke loose upon the revelation that one “undereducated” (a senator’s description) woman has been masterfully siphoning off money from the government into her own pockets and those of her alleged accomplices in high places in the government structure.

And now, practically every month, exposé after exposé has been revealing to the whole nation that there is corruption in practically every public office in the land.

Society, particularly the middle class, has been upset and up in arms over the corruption in our midst. The corruption has been unbelievable in its magnitude and as we come to know more and more, the extent is mind-boggling. If we scratch the surface of every office in government, it would surely reek of corruption.

Filipino public officials have elevated corruption to the level of art, maybe even science. They’re masters of how to make money, huge amounts of money, out of being public officials. No wonder getting elected to office is often a serious battle among the contenders for the benefits, the spoils, the fortunes to be enjoyed, are so grand, the elected and appointed high officials can live like kings and queens.

No wonder politicians fight tooth and nail, sometimes to the death, just to get elected so they can wallow in the spoils of political wars. No wonder when they get elected they do everything to hold on to their positions, even handing over the reins (and reign) to their family members so they can perpetuate their strangle-hold on their positions.

Who’s going to stop the plundering?

The politicians themselves cannot be trusted to send all the guilty ones to prison. The rich don’t care much because they have ways of protecting their interests. The poor have no time to care because they have other, more pressing, concerns in life, like how to continue living, even though in utter misery. The intelligentsia is often passive.

The fate of the nation is in the hands of the middle class. The politicians who falsely declare they will clean government of corruption and all its other evils are charlatans whose main cravings are to join the entrenched rich class and live as handsomely as they do.

Will the middle class be able to organize and mobilize itself and be the watchdog against corruption? Will the middle class be able to sustain its outrage and continue the fight against corruption? Will the middle class remain indignant and be a cohesive force against what ails the nation?

Will the middle class fight and prevail or will it be co-opted and swallowed by the ruling elite?