Thousands in Philippines protest corruption and demand return of stolen
funds from flood projects
[December 01, 2025]
By JIM GOMEZ
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators including from the
Roman Catholic church clergy protested in the Philippines on Sunday,
calling for the swift prosecution of top legislators and officials
implicated in a corruption scandal that has buffeted the Asian
democracy.
Left-wing groups led a separate protest in Manila’s main park with a
blunt demand for all implicated government officials to immediately
resign and face prosecution.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been scrambling to quell public
outrage over the massive corruption blamed for substandard, defective or
non-existent flood control projects across an archipelago long prone to
deadly flooding and extreme weather in tropical Asia.
More than 17,000 police officers were deployed in metropolitan Manila to
secure the separate protests. The Malacanang presidential palace complex
in Manila was in a security lockdown with key access roads and bridges
blocked by anti-riot police forces, trucks and barbed wire railings.
In a deeply divided democracy where two presidents have been separately
overthrown in the last 39 years partly over allegations of plunder,
there have been isolated calls for the military to withdraw support from
the Marcos administration.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines has steadfastly rejected such calls
and welcomed on Sunday a statement signed by at least 88 mostly retired
generals, including three military chiefs of staff, who said they
“strongly condemn and reject any call for the Armed Forces of the
Philippines to engage in unconstitutional acts 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 across the country helped lead Sunday’s
anti-corruption protests in their districts, with the main daylong rally
being held at a pro-democracy “people power” monument along EDSA highway
in the capital region. Police said about 5,000 demonstrators mostly
wearing white joined before noon.
They demanded that members of Congress, officials and construction
company owners behind thousands of anomalous flood control projects in
recent years be imprisoned and ordered to return the government funds
they stole. A protester wore a shirt with a blunt message: “No mercy for
the greedy.”
[to top of second column]
|
Protesters destroy an effigy of Philippine President Ferdinand
Marcos Jr. during an anti-corruption rally in Manila, Philippines
on, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
“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 helped many families of
impoverished drug suspects killed under former President Rodrigo
Duterte's crackdowns.
“Jail all the corrupt and jail all the killers," Villanueva told the
crowd of protesters.
Since Marcos first raised alarm over the flood control anomalies in
his state of the nation address before Congress in July, at least
seven public works officers have been jailed for illegal use of
public funds and other graft charges in one flood control project
anomaly alone. Executives of Sunwest Corp., a construction firm
involved in the project, were being sought.
On Friday, Henry Alcantara, a former government engineer who has
acknowledged under oath in Senate inquiry hearings his involvement
in the anomalies, returned 110 million pesos ($1.9 million) in
kickbacks that justice officials said he stole and promised to
return more in a few weeks.
About 12 billion pesos ($206 million) worth of assets of suspects in
flood control anomalies have been frozen by authorities, Marcos
said.
Marcos has pledged that many of at least 37 powerful senators,
members of Congress and wealthy construction executives implicated
in the corruption scandal would be in jail by Christmas.
Protesters in Sunday’s rallies said many more officials, including
implicated senators and House of Representatives members, should be
jailed sooner and ordered to return the funds they stole and used to
finance fleets of private jets and luxury cars, mansions and
extravagant lifestyles.
___
AP journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this
report.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
