MANILA — Thousands of demonstrators, including Roman Catholic clergy, rallied across the Philippines on Sunday to demand the prosecution of top legislators and officials implicated in a sweeping corruption scandal tied to flood control projects.
Left-wing groups staged a separate protest at Manila’s main park, calling for the immediate resignation and prosecution of all implicated officials. The church-led main rally took place at a “people power” monument along EDSA, where police said about 5,000 demonstrators, many dressed in white, had gathered by midday.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has moved to contain public anger after revelations that hundreds of flood control projects were anomalous, resulting in substandard, defective or non-existent infrastructure in a nation regularly hit by deadly floods and severe weather. Protesters demanded that members of Congress, government officials and construction company owners responsible for the irregular projects be jailed and ordered to return stolen funds. One demonstrator wore a shirt reading, “No mercy for the greedy.”
“What is stolen is a crime, but when dignity and lives are taken, these are sins against fellow human beings, against the country, and against God,” said the Rev. Flavie Villanueva, a Catholic priest who has supported families of victims of past crackdowns. “Jail all the corrupt and jail all the killers,” he told the crowd.
More than 17,000 police officers were deployed across metropolitan Manila. The Malacañang presidential palace complex was placed in a security lockdown, with key access roads and bridges blocked by anti-riot police, trucks and barbed wire.
In a country with a history of leaders toppled partly over plunder allegations, there were isolated calls for the military to withdraw support from the Marcos administration. The Armed Forces of the Philippines rejected such appeals and on Sunday welcomed a statement signed by at least 88 mostly retired generals, including three former chiefs of staff, condemning any calls for unconstitutional military action. “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.
Since Marcos highlighted the flood control anomalies in his state of the nation address in July, authorities have jailed at least seven public works officers in connection with one project, sought executives of Sunwest Corp., and frozen about 12 billion pesos ($206 million) in assets tied to suspects. Former government engineer Henry Alcantara has returned 110 million pesos ($1.9 million) in kickbacks and said he would return more.
Marcos has vowed that many of the at least 37 senators, members of Congress and construction executives implicated in the scandal would be jailed by Christmas. Protesters said they want officials punished sooner and stolen funds reclaimed, noting the luxuries—private jets, luxury cars and mansions—allegedly financed by the ill-gotten money.
AP journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report.