On September 21st (Sunday), local time, a large-scale anti-corruption protest broke out in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets to express dissatisfaction with the scandal involving parliamentarians, officials and businessmen suspected of embezzling huge kickbacks from flood control projects.
According to AFP and Associated Press, the main demonstrations were concentrated around the Luneta Park and EDAA Avenue Democratic Monument, with the crowd waving the Philippine flag, raising the banner "Enough! send corrupt people to jail" and shouting the slogan "Pursue responsibility" and demanding immediate prosecution of all involved.
A 23-year-old nursing student, Ali Bilia Elmossa, crowded in the crowd and told AFP reporters that he had shown a photo of himself when he had "travelled in the flood," saying: "The flood prevention budget is used to buy luxury cars, but we don't even have basic medical insurance!
In order to prevent the incident, the Philippine police and the military entered early alert and thousands of policemen protested the regional patrol evacuation, and there were no large-scale clashes on the scene.The Philippine police estimate that the number of participants in the two gatherings is more than 20,000 in total, a rare mass rally in recent years.
The U.S. and Australian embassies in the Philippines also issued a travel warning on Sunday, advising their nationals to avoid protest sites to ensure their personal safety.
Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, chairman of the Catholic Episcopate of the Philippines, said in a statement: “Our goal is not to undermine stability, but to strengthen our democracy.”
Teddy Cassino, chairman of the left-wing “Bagong Alyansang Makabayan”, said at the scene of the protest: “The demands of the people are clear, not only to recover the money, but also to put the corrupt in jail, so that this will never happen again.”
Causes of scandal
The corruption scandal, which has sparked anger in the Philippines, was first revealed by Philippine President Ferdinand Romuldez Marcos in a State of the State speech in July.
He revealed that since his entry into office in mid-2022, there have been serious problems with 9855 flood prevention projects worth more than 545 billion pesos (about RMB 681 billion) in the country, and a large number of projects have been said to be "unqualified" or "not started at all".
Marcos criticized the scale of corruption and set up an independent committee on September 11 to investigate corruption in infrastructure projects, focusing on ill-treated water treatment facilities.
And really igniting the public’s anger was a “foolish behavior” by the owner of the construction company involved in the case.
In August this year, businessman Sarah Discaia and Pacifico Discaia showed dozens of European-American luxury cars and SUVs in media interviews, including a British luxury car worth 42 million pesos (approximately RMB 5.25 million), which they interpreted as “buy due to an umbrella attachment.”
Under great pressure from public opinion, the couple identified at least 17 members of Congress and public works officials at a televised Senate hearing in early September, saying that these people forced them to pay huge kickbacks to win flood control contracts.
The subsequent House investigation saw a former Filipino engineer accusing two more prominent senators of involvement at a separate hearing. Although all the named officials deny the allegations, they are now facing a multi-sectoral joint investigation.
Last week, Senate Speaker Francesco Escudero and House Speaker Martin Romualdes resigned, becoming the first senior members of Congress to step down on corruption charges after the scandal was uncovered.
The Philippine public works department also that three engineers have been fired, 15 are under pre-departure investigation, and all the people involved in the case's bank accounts, properties and vehicles have been frozen, and will face criminal proceedings.