After reading Cirilo Bautista’s “During the War”, the line that struck me most was “grief humbles

the
arrogant and squeezes blood from a stone”. The way I can interpret said line is that situations out of our
control but drastic and tragic in effect have the power to bring forth change to what people see as
wrong. It may usually be driven out by fear or in worry that we may suffer from our own actions or lack
to take so. In relation to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, those with power in our Philippine
government tremble in fear of the voices of the Filipino people who are tired of suffering from the
extremities they have to face to battle the virus and not just of COVID-19. The power to call out the
officials, who treat themselves as elites as they cover up their lack of preparedness with lousy excuses,
comes from the same kind of grief Bautista’s poem mentions. It will not stop fueling the people until
those who hold the most power learn how to use it. We, the Filipino people, unite to squeeze blood
from those stones to show that we have had enough and that we are prepared to stand for each other if
they are incapable to stand for us.