MANILA, Philippines — Thousands of demonstrators, including Roman Catholic clergy, took to the streets in the Philippines on Sunday, calling for the swift prosecution of top legislators and officials implicated in a major corruption scandal.
Left-wing groups held a separate protest in Manila’s main park, demanding that all implicated government officials immediately resign and face the law.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been under pressure to address public outrage over corruption linked to substandard, defective, or unbuilt flood control projects in an archipelago frequently hit by deadly floods and extreme weather.
More than 17,000 police officers were deployed in Metro Manila to secure the separate protests. The Malacañang presidential palace complex was placed on security lockdown, with key roads and bridges blocked by anti-riot police, trucks, and barbed wire.
In a deeply divided democracy where two presidents have been ousted in the last 39 years partly over plunder allegations, there have been isolated calls for the military to withdraw support from the Marcos administration. The Armed Forces of the Philippines rejected such calls, welcoming a statement signed by at least 88 mostly retired generals, including three former military chiefs of staff, condemning any unconstitutional or military adventurism.
“The unified voice of our retired and active leaders reaffirms that the Armed Forces of the Philippines remains a pillar of stability and a steadfast guardian of democracy,” the military said in a statement.
Roman Catholic churches nationwide helped lead Sunday’s anti-corruption protests, with the main rally held at the pro-democracy People Power Monument along EDSA in Metro Manila. Police reported about 5,000 demonstrators, mostly dressed in white, attended before noon.
Protesters demanded that members of Congress, government officials, and construction company owners behind thousands of anomalous flood control projects be imprisoned and ordered to return stolen government funds. One demonstrator wore a shirt with the message: “No mercy for the greedy.”
“If money is stolen, that is a crime, but if dignity and lives are taken, these are sins against fellow human beings, against the country, and above all, against God,” said Rev. Flavie Villanueva, a Catholic priest who has supported families of impoverished drug suspects killed during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown. “Jail all the corrupt and jail all the killers,” he told the crowd.
Since Marcos first raised alarm over the flood control anomalies during his State of the Nation Address in July, at least seven public works officials have been jailed for illegal use of public funds and other graft charges related to a single project. Executives of Sunwest Corp., a construction firm involved in the project, are still being sought.
On Friday, Henry Alcantara, a former government engineer who admitted under oath his involvement in the anomalies, returned 110 million pesos ($1.9 million) in kickbacks and pledged to return more in the coming weeks.
Authorities have frozen about 12 billion pesos ($206 million) in assets of suspects in flood control anomalies, according to Marcos. The president vowed that many of at least 37 powerful senators, members of Congress, and wealthy construction executives implicated in the scandal would be behind bars by Christmas.
Protesters said many more officials, including implicated senators and House members, should be jailed immediately and forced to return funds that financed private jets, luxury cars, mansions, and extravagant lifestyles.
Si Venus L Peñaflor ay naging editor-in-chief ng Newsworld, isang lokal na pahayagan ng Laguna. Publisher din siya ng Daystar Gazette at Tutubi News Magazine. Siya ay isa ring pintor at doll face designer ng Ninay Dolls, ang unang Manikang Pilipino. Kasali siya sa DesignCrowd sa rank na #305 sa 640,000 graphic designers sa buong daigdig. Kasama din siya sa unang Local TV Broadcast sa Laguna na Beyond Manila. Aktibong kasapi siya ng San Pablo Jaycees Senate bilang isang JCI Senator.
- Venus L Peñaflor
- Venus L Peñaflor
- Venus L Peñaflor
- Venus L Peñaflor
