Hundreds of thousands of people gathered yesterday in the Philippine capital, Manila, to demand accountability for a flood-control corruption scandal that has implicated top government officials and powerful members of Congress.
The protest in Manila’s Rizal Park, the first of a planned three-day “Rally for Transparency and a Better Democracy” organized by the influential Iglesia Ni Cristo, or Church of Christ, attracted an estimated crowd of 650,000. According to the Associated Press, “many wore white shirts and carried anti-corruption placards,” some of which read “Don’t Bend the Law.”
“We come together not to meddle in politics, but to stand with our fellow Filipinos who are calling for truth after more than 100 days of unanswered wrongdoings,” organizers said in a Facebook post. “This peaceful movement demands a thorough, fair, and constitutional investigation because corruption has harmed every Filipino, yet no one has been held accountable.”
The protests are the latest that have erupted following the revelation earlier this year of massive corruption linked to flood control projects. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. first revealed the scandal in his annual state of the nation address in July, blaming corruption for weeks of severe flooding and promising to investigate the issue thoroughly. An internal government audit later revealed that out of 545 billion pesos ($9.63 billion) in flood control spending since 2022, “thousands of projects were either substandard, poorly documented, or non-existent.”
The issue of flooding has a particular resonance in the Philippines, which is battered by dozens of typhoons and tropical storms annually. Earlier this month, Typhoon Kalmaegi left at least 188 people dead and another 135 people missing when it hit the Philippines. Just days later, it was followed by Super Typhoon Fung-wong, which forced the evacuation of nearly 1 million people and killed at least two.
The flood control scandal has since broadened into a generalized anger with corruption that is deeply embedded in the Philippine political system, threatening to engulf Marcos and his administration.
The revelation of the scope of the corruption – the audit has identified nearly 10,000 flood control projects that have been affected – an intense outpouring of public anger about corruption, including large public protests on September 21, which called for the imprisonment of corrupt officials.
“What’s saddening about this is our leaders were involved… We want change,” one Iglesia ni Cristo member told the AFP news agency at yesterday’s protest. “We are here not only because our church calls for this. This is the call of most of the Filipino people.”
Official investigations, including an Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) set up by Marcos in August and a separate Senate investigation launched the same month, have now inculpated dozens of important officials, including close allies of the Philippine president.
During these investigations, government engineers, public works officials, and executives of construction companies have testified under oath “that members of Congress and officials at the Department of Public Works and Highways took kickbacks from construction companies to help them win lucrative contracts and avoid accountability,” the AP reported.
The investigations have since forced the resignation of House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin, who has been accused of taking kickbacks from flood control projects. His resignation came a week after Senate President Chiz Escudero was ousted from his position in connection with the scandal, along with Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva and President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada. All have denied any wrongdoing.
In a public address on November 13, Marcos said that the ICI has now filed criminal complaints for graft, corruption, and plunder against 37 suspects. Tax evasion charges have also been filed against 86 construction company executives and nine government officials.
“Before Christmas, I think the cases of many of those mentioned here will be completed,’ he said, according to Rappler. “They’ll go to jail. No Merry Christmas for them. They’ll go to jail before Christmas.”
Marcos said that Romualdez was not included in the initial batch of case referrals “because the only evidence against him is in the Senate.”
“If something else comes out, then he might have to be answerable to something,” Marcos said, adding that “No one is immune to this, no one is exempt from this investigation,” he added.
The challenge for Marcos is how to assuage the public’s anger about corruption without endangering his own hold on power. Corruption is such a widespread problem in the Philippines, and so inseparable from the ordinary business of politics, that a genuine crackdown runs the risk of escaping Marcos’ control – if it hasn’t already.
