Thousands protest in Philippines over huge corruption scandal

Thousands of protesters took to the streets within the Philippine capital on Sunday (September 21, 2025) to specific their outrage over a corruption scandal involving lawmakers, officers and businesspeople who allegedly pocketed large kickbacks from flood-control tasks within the poverty-stricken and storm-prone Southeast Asian nation.

Police forces and troops have been placed on alert to forestall any outbreak of violence. Thousands of cops have been deployed to safe separate protests in a historic Manila park and close to a democracy monument alongside the principle EDSA freeway, additionally within the capital area, the place organisers hoped to attract one of many largest turnouts of anti-corruption protesters within the nation lately.

The United States and Australian embassies issued journey advisories asking their residents to steer clear of the protests as a security precaution.

A bunch of protesters waved Philippine flags and displayed a banner that learn: “No extra, an excessive amount of, jail them,” as they marched within the Manila protest and demanded the instant prosecution of all these concerned within the scandal.

“I really feel unhealthy that we wallow in poverty and we lose our houses, our lives and our future whereas they rake in a giant fortune from our taxes that pay for his or her luxurious automobiles, international journeys and larger company transactions,” scholar activist Althea Trinidad advised The Associated Press in Manila, the place she joined a loud crowd that police estimated at round 8,000 individuals by noon.

“We wish to shift to a system the place individuals will not be abused.”

Trinidad lives in Bulacan, a flood-prone province north of Manila, the place officers mentioned essentially the most flood-control tasks have been being investigated both as substandard or nonexistent.

“Our goal is to not destabilise however to strengthen our democracy,” Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, the top of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, mentioned in a press release. He referred to as on the general public to show peacefully and demand accountability.

Organisers mentioned protesters would deal with denouncing corrupt public works officers, legislators and house owners of development firms, together with a system that permits large-scale corruption, however they’d not name on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to step down.

MR. Marcos first highlighted the flood-control corruption scandal in July in his annual State of the Nation speech.

He later established an unbiased fee to analyze what he mentioned have been anomalies in most of the 9,855 flood-control tasks price greater than 545 billion pesos ($9.5 billion) that have been speculated to have been undertaken since he took workplace in mid-2022. He referred to as the dimensions of corruption “horrible” and has accepted his public works secretary’s resignation.

Public outrage erupted when a rich couple who ran a number of development firms that gained profitable flood-control challenge contracts confirmed dozens of European and American luxurious automobiles and SUVs they owned throughout media interviews. The fleet included a British luxurious automotive costing 42 million pesos ($737,000) that they mentioned they purchased as a result of it got here with a free umbrella.

Under intense public criticism, the couple, Sarah and Pacifico Discaya, later recognized throughout a televised Senate inquiry at the least 17 House of Representatives legislators and public works officers who allegedly pressured them to pay large kickbacks so they may safe flood-control tasks in an explosive testimony.

Two distinguished senators have been later implicated within the scandal by a former authorities engineer in a separate House inquiry. All these named denied wrongdoing, however they face a number of investigations.

Senate President Francis Escudero and House Speaker Martin Romualdez individually stepped down in a widening fallout from the scandal, as each chambers of Congress face intensifying criticism after a number of legislators have been implicated within the corruption allegations.

At least three authorities engineers have been dismissed, and 15 others have been being investigated previous to dismissal. All face felony complaints and their financial institution accounts, homes, automobiles and different property can be frozen, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon mentioned.