Caloocan residents turn to Facebook meme page to report complaints

The FTTM page calls it ‘bardagulan for a cause’

MANILA, Philippines – Some residents of Caloocan City have found an ally in Facebook meme page Follow The Trend Movement (FTTM), where they have been airing their grievances about local issues in recent weeks.

Back in May, FTTM shared a street-lighting project update posted on the Facebook account of Caloocan City Mayor Dale “Along” Malapitan, who was reelected in the 2025 polls. The meme page jokingly attributed the brightness to the camera’s ISO setting increasing “from ISO 100 to ISO 1600.”

The FTTM post garnered around 42,000 reactions and over 2,000 shares. A user commented, “Brownout vs. nagkailaw na (the lights are back),” while another netizen said, “Flexing the bare minimum.”

Malapitan responded through a video hours later, saying, “Sabi ni FTTM, ‘From ISO 100 to ISO 1600.’ ‘Yan mismo ang mga dalang liwanag ng mga proyekto nating streetlights sa Caloocan. Walang adjust-adjust…. Sa aking ikalawang termino, titiyakin ko na mas marami pang lugar sa Caloocan ang tila magiging ISO 1600.”

(FTTM said, “From ISO 100 to ISO 1600.” That’s the brightness brought to you by our streetlights in Caloocan. No adjustments. In my second term, I’ll ensure that more places in Caloocan will be as bright as ISO 1600.)

FTTM replied in a separate post, saying, “‘Yung hinaing po ng constituents ‘nyo ang palagan ninyo, hindi ang meme namin.” (Pay attention to your constituents’ grievances, not our memes.)

The Caloocan City government installed 80 new streetlights in April as part of efforts to reduce crime and enhance public safety. But some residents have already reported malfunctions as of May.

That wasn’t the end of the exchange between FTTM and Malapitan.

Flooding, garbage woes

The Facebook page asked the Caloocan mayor about an ironic photo showing signage for a flood control project in a flooded area. The word “wall” was also misspelled as “wal.”

A user commented, “‘Di nalimutan ilagay ‘yung pagmumukha, matching font styles pa sa pangalan, pero simpleng ‘wall’ na pinaka-proyekto ‘di man lang na-double-check ‘yung spelling.” (They didn’t forget to put their photos, and even used matching font styles for the names, but they failed to double-check the spelling of “wall,” which was the actual project.)

Caloocan has long been susceptible to floods. A fact sheet by Partners for Resilience, a global network of civil society organizations, cites “river overflow, excessive rainfall, and inadequate channel capacity” as the main causes of flooding in the city.

Malapitan’s post showing a creek cleanup operation also caught FTTM’s attention because the before and after photos supposedly had the same timestamp.

The mayor deleted the post shortly after without an explanation.

Rappler sought comment from the Caloocan City Environmental Management Department (CEMD), but the agency has yet to reply as of posting.

For 2025, the CEMD is the agency with the second highest budget in Caloocan, at P1.11 billion. On social media, it shares photos of its cleanup operations in waterways and other areas.

The city’s annual average generated waste from 2021 to 2024 is around 543,300 cubic meters, based on Metropolitan Manila Development Authority data.

“Resident of Maypajo here, the creeks still remain like a dumpsite,” one Facebook user said. Maypajo is a flood-prone barangay in South Caloocan.

‘Bardagulan for a cause’

The “bardagulan for a cause,” as FTTM puts it, has turned the meme page into a complaint center of sorts. Bardagulan is a Filipino slang term for heated, no-holds-barred exchanges.

“Why not starting today, i-report na natin directly kay FTTM instead na sa barangay and sa [city hall] ang lahat ng hanash natin sa Caloocan, like mga sirang kalsada, bahang lugar, walang streetlight, etc. Pansin na pansin ni mayor dito eh…patol na patol eh!” a commenter said.

(Why not starting today, let’s report all our grievances like damaged roads, flood-prone areas, and lack of streetlights directly to FTTM instead of our barangay and the city hall? The mayor has been paying a lot of attention to the comments here!)

Another one said, “Kayo lang talaga makakapagpasunod kay Mayor Along.” (Only you can make Mayor Along act.)

Malapitan secured a second term after garnering 348,592 votes in the May 2025 elections. His closest opponent, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, received 229,774 votes. – Rappler.com

Eirene Manatlao is a senior journalism student at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. An Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow of Rappler for 2025, she is also the associate feature editor of The Catalyst.