MANILA, Philippines — Thousands of demonstrators, including Roman Catholic clergy, marched and rallied in the Philippines on Sunday to demand the prosecution of top legislators and officials tied to a sweeping corruption scandal involving flood control projects.
Left-wing groups held a separate protest in Manila’s main park, calling on implicated government officials to resign and face trial. The demonstrations come amid public outrage over allegedly corrupt, substandard or nonexistent flood control works blamed for worsening damage from floods and extreme weather across the archipelago.
Authorities deployed more than 17,000 police officers across metropolitan Manila. The presidential palace complex at Malacañang was placed on lockdown, with access roads and bridges blocked by anti-riot police, trucks and barbed wire.
Amid a politically divided democracy that has seen two presidents ousted partly over plunder allegations in the past 39 years, some voices urged the military to withdraw support from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration. The Armed Forces of the Philippines rejected those appeals and welcomed a statement from at least 88 mostly retired generals, including three former chiefs of staff, condemning any call for unconstitutional military action. The military said the statement reaffirmed the AFP as a pillar of stability and defender of democracy.
Roman Catholic churches around the country helped organize local rallies, with the main daylong demonstration held at a pro-democracy “people power” monument along the EDSA highway. Police said about 5,000 mostly white-clad protesters had gathered by midday.
Protesters demanded that members of Congress, officials and construction company owners responsible for thousands of anomalous flood control projects be jailed and ordered to return stolen public funds. One demonstrator wore a shirt reading, “No mercy for the greedy.”
“If money is stolen, that’s a crime, but if dignity and lives are taken away, these are sins against fellow human beings, against the country but, most importantly, against God,” said the Rev. Flavie Villanueva, a Catholic priest who has supported families of impoverished drug suspects killed during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdowns. “Jail all the corrupt and jail all the killers,” he told the crowd.
Since Marcos first highlighted the flood control anomalies in his state of the nation address in July, at least seven public works officials have been jailed on charges including illegal use of public funds related to a single flood control project. Executives of Sunwest Corp., a construction firm tied to the project, were being sought.
On Friday, Henry Alcantara, a former government engineer who admitted under oath during Senate hearings his role in the anomalies, returned 110 million pesos (about $1.9 million) in kickbacks and said he would return more soon. Authorities have frozen about 12 billion pesos (roughly $206 million) in assets linked to suspects in the flood control cases, Marcos said.
The president has vowed that many of the roughly 37 implicated senators, members of Congress and wealthy construction executives would be jailed by Christmas. Protesters on Sunday said more officials should be arrested immediately and forced to repay funds they allegedly used to buy private jets, luxury cars, mansions and other lavish items.
AP journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report.