By Youth Against Kurakot
On Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, at 2 p.m., in celebration of International Students’ Day — students went on strike and converged at the AS Steps, Palma Hall, UP Diliman for the Student Strike against Corruption, a show of defiance against the culture of impunity that shielded the powerful from justice.
Youth Against Kurakot was composed of Akbayan Youth, Liberal Youth, Student Council Alliance of the Philippines, Kilos Ko Youth, Kaya Natin Youth, PM Kabataan, Philippine Anti-Discrimination Alliance of Youth Leaders, Bulakenyos for Good Governance, UP Alyansa, and UP Babaylan.
The Akbayan Reform Bloc, Morobeats, PPop Group VXON, and Drag Race Superstar Maxie Anderson joined the action.
The protest, themed “The People’s Court: Holding the Corrupt Accountable,” dramatized a Citizen’s Arrest and convened a symbolic tribunal — the Korte ng Taumbayan — where citizens themselves acted as judge and jury to deliver the people’s verdict: “Ikulong na ‘yan!”
Through this people’s court, victims, parents, and students testified how corruption had robbed communities not just of resources, but of safety and dignity.
The event culminated in the reading of a Guilty Verdict against officials implicated in the flood control scandal, followed by the symbolic “serving” of arrest warrants.