Thousands of Filipinos, including Roman Catholic clergy, marched and rallied across Manila to demand accountability and the recovery of public money tied to a massive flood control corruption scandal. Left-wing groups staged a separate demonstration in the capital’s main park, urging implicated officials to resign and face trial as public anger grows over allegedly corrupt, shoddy or unfinished flood control projects blamed for worsening storm and flood damage nationwide.
Authorities deployed more than 17,000 police officers across metropolitan Manila and placed the presidential palace complex at Malacañang on lockdown, sealing access roads and bridges with anti-riot police, trucks and barbed wire.
Some protesters called on the military to withdraw support for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration amid the politically charged controversy. The Armed Forces of the Philippines rejected those appeals, welcoming a public statement from at least 88 mostly retired generals, including three former chiefs of staff, that condemned any call for unconstitutional military action and reaffirmed the AFP as a pillar of stability and defender of democracy.
Roman Catholic churches helped organize local rallies, with the main daylong protest centered at a pro-democracy “people power” monument along the EDSA highway. Police estimated about 5,000 mostly white-clad demonstrators had gathered by midday. Protesters demanded that congressional members, government officials and construction company owners responsible for thousands of anomalous flood control projects be prosecuted, jailed and ordered to return stolen public funds.
Religious leaders framed the campaign as both a legal and moral imperative. Father Flavie Villanueva, who has supported families affected by past government violence, told the crowd that stealing public money is a crime and robbing people of dignity and lives is a sin, urging authorities to jail the corrupt and those who have killed.
Since President Marcos first highlighted the flood control anomalies in his state of the nation address in July, authorities have jailed at least seven public works officials on charges including illegal use of public funds connected to a single project. Executives of Sunwest Corp., a construction firm linked to the work, are being sought. Former government engineer Henry Alcantara, who acknowledged his role under oath during Senate hearings, returned 110 million pesos (about $1.9 million) in kickbacks and said he would return more. Authorities have frozen roughly 12 billion pesos (about $206 million) in assets tied to suspects.
Marcos has vowed that many of the roughly 37 implicated senators, congressmen and wealthy construction executives would face jail time by Christmas. Protesters on Sunday demanded faster arrests and immediate recovery of funds used to buy luxury goods, private jets and mansions, pressing the government to turn outrage into action.