Source: China News Weekly
A political storm in the Philippines, triggered by flood protection engineering corruption, continues to ferment.
On September 17, local time, Martin Romualdez, speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives and cousin of President Marcos, suddenly announced his resignation. He said that he would step down with a "clear conscience" so that the newly established investigation agency could "work independently without undue interference".
After the flood protection corruption scandal broke out, the anti-corruption wave on the streets of the Philippines continued to heat up. On September 21, local people will hold two large-scale rallies in Manila and Queensland. Demonstrators said it was not only a public funding scandal but also a betrayal of public trust.
After Philippine Senator Escudero was removed on September 8 due to the corruption scandal, Romualdes' resignation is seen as another key step in the administration's response to civilian anti-corruption calls.
Problems of Jungle
The spark of the political storm came from a nationally broadcast Senate hearing on September 8.
Mr. and Mrs. Disaya, a Philippine builder, accused at the meeting that they were forced to pay huge "kickbacks" to several members of Congress and public works officials in order to get lucrative flood control contracts.
In their oath testimony, the couple claimed that at least 17 members of the House of Representatives had asked them to pay a refund, up to a quarter of the total amount of the project.
Although they failed to provide the exact amount, contract details or direct evidence on the spot, the Disaya and his wife stressed that they had a complete record of the time and place of bribery, and were willing to continue to testify in closed-door hearings, provided that they obtained habeas corpus. "We don't have security yet, so it's scared," Disaya said.
This accusation quickly detonated public opinion and directly led to the resignation of Manuel Bonoan, Minister of Public Works and Highways. Both houses of the Philippine Congress and the Marcos government immediately launched investigations respectively.
At the same time, the luxurious lifestyle of the Disaia couple has also become a focus.They have shown in media interviews that they own dozens of European-American luxury sedans and SUVs, further sparking public anger.
The data show that over the three years since Marcos took office as the 17th president of the Philippines, the Philippines has invested approximately 545 billion pesos (approximately RMB 6,81 billion) in flood prevention projects. But in recent months, heavy rains and floods have caused catastrophic damage, and many cities have been flooded, highlighting serious vulnerabilities in the flood prevention system. A large number of projects led by the Ministry of Public Projects and Highways have been questioned as "ghost projects", alleged contractual fraud, budget falsehoods, progress delays, and even cases of "finished billing" but never started work.
In the face of questioning, Romualdes firmly denied. In a statement, he said the allegations were “lie and malice”, “meant to obscure my reputation and undermine the credibility of Congress”.
In recent weeks, Marcos has repeatedly visited the disaster area to see the flood prevention project and found the problem to arise. In the city of Balivag, in the province of Prague, he even found a flood prevention dam marked “finished” and paid in full, which doesn’t exist at all.
Marcos criticized the large scale of corruption and the severity of the absence of punishment, "terrible", and then launched the "Report to the President" website, encouraging the public to report corruption in the project anonymously, in just a few days received more than 16,000 complaints.
According to statistics, the Philippines encounters about 20 typhoons and storms every year on average. Since July this year, continuous typhoons and monsoon rains have caused catastrophic floods, affecting millions of people, displacing more than 300,000 people, and destroying a large number of infrastructure and farmland.
Close allies
As Marcus' cousin, Romuald is regarded as the core representative and agent of the Marcus family in the ruling coalition in the legislative body. He not only occupies an important position in the family political system, but is also considered the president's most reliable ally in Congress.
In July 2022, after being elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, Romualdez quickly became the main "bridge" between the Marcos government and Congress. Under his impetus, many of the president's priority bills passed smoothly and were regarded as the "legislative engine" of the government.
However, as the game of budget allocation intensified, his political role gradually became the focus of both Marcos and Duterte’s big family roles. As chairman, he led the House to cut or veto the secret fund application run by Vice President Sarah Duterte several times, but quickly approved the similar budget of the Presidential Office. This practice, interpreted by the outside as the political repression of the Marcos family against the Duterte family.
The move sparked strong dissatisfaction with former President Rodrigo Duterte, who publicly accused Romualdes of "conspirating" with left-wing parties to deprive his daughter of resources, calling the House of Representatives "the most corrupt institution in the country" and demanding a comprehensive audit of it.
Immediately thereafter, the House of Representatives removed the post of deputy chairman of the Duterte family’s ally, former president and lawmaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, on procedural grounds, making the contradiction more public.
Romualdes played a key role during his tenure, whether it was to pursue Duterte’s responsibility for the “war on drugs” or to push for Vice President Sarah’s impeachment.
But in 2025, Romualdes himself also fell into the twilight. Earlier this year, he was challenged by the distribution of billions of pesos in public projects budgets. Critics pointed out that in the 2025 budget, people's spending on education, healthcare and other livelihoods was drastically cut, while relief and infrastructure appropriations were significantly increased, believed to serve "election considerations" and "military politics".
In the meantime, more serious charges followed. Some flood control funds are accused of being added through "congressional insertion" after the 2025 budget has been approved, lacking transparent deliberation. As a result, romualdez and several members of parliament were reported to the Ombudsman's Office, facing 12 crimes of forging legislative documents and 12 crimes of corruption, involving a total amount of 241 billion pesos (about 30.1 billion yuan).
In fact, there was a rumor inside the House of Representatives that leadership could change before the architects and architects disclosed the "floodback" scandal publicly, and this scandal eventually became the last blow to overwhelm Romualds.
“self protection”
On September 15, Philippine President Marcos announced the launch of a comprehensive investigation, vowing to “reveal the true face of the fraudsters and find out how much money they actually stole.”
In response to public inquiries, Marcos set up an “Infrastructure Independent Committee” with members including former Supreme Court Judge Andreas Reyes, former Public Projects Minister Roger Carson, Rosanna Fajardo, a partner of the largest accounting firm SGV in the Philippines, and Mayor of Beirut, Benjamin Magallon.
Marcos stressed that “no one can escape,” including his cousin, Speaker Romualdes, from the independent inquiry into flood prevention and infrastructure projects over the past decade. When asked how to ensure that relatives are not treated preferentially, Marcos replied, “There is only one way – they will not be let go.”
On the afternoon after Marcos made this statement, the Philippine House of Representatives suddenly adjourned due to the news of a "coup attempt against Romualdez". It is reported that some members of parliament are planning to remove Romualdez. That night, Romualdez entered the presidential palace, Malacanang Palace, to meet Marcos. The presidential palace confirmed the news of the talks, but refused to disclose details.
Less than 24 hours later, at 3:23 p.m. on September 17, Roosevelt announced his resignation at the plenary session of the House of Representatives: “The longer I stay, the heavier this burden will be. For me, for the House of Representatives, and for the President. After consideration, he resigned as House Speaker.”
Edson Tapia, a professor at the University of the Philippines, said the resignation was both a response to public pressure and a “strategic self-defense” to prevent the scandal from dragging the president further.
Political analyst Cleve Agüelles noted that the leaders of the two houses of parliament had dropped as a result of the scandal, which in turn allowed Marcos to rebuild parliamentary influence at a critical moment. By supporting the new Chairman of the House of Representatives Fostino Lee, Marcus ensured that the majority seats remained firmly in his hands, even if the term entered later, and could further consolidate power within the party.
Reported by: Zheng Li