Source: World Wide Web

[Global Network Report] According to the Associated Press, on September 21st, when anti-corruption protests broke out in the Philippines, riots broke out near the presidential palace in the Philippines, and demonstrators had physical conflicts with the police. According to reports, the Philippine police arrested 49 people on the 21st, accusing them of throwing stones, bottles and incendiary bombs at the police and blocking roads and bridges leading to the presidential palace.

On September 21, anti-corruption protests broke out across the Philippines, demonstrators threw stones at police in Manila.

The report quoted Manila police as saying that about a hundred hand-held ¡°bulls¡± were involved in the riots, which resulted in about 70 law enforcement officers injured. It is not clear whether these people had participated in peaceful protests before they went to the presidential palace. It is unclear whether President Marcos of the Philippines was in the presidential palace during the riots. The police issued a statement after the arrest that the situation was ¡°controlled¡± and that it would not tolerate violence and destructive acts.

According to the Philippine Daily Questionnaire, people in more than 20 cities in the Philippines took to the streets on the day to protest government alleged corruption in flood prevention and other infrastructure projects. Among them, the Philippine government's losses due to the scandal involving fake flood prevention projects are estimated at $18 billion, about $1 trillion.

Extended reading

Philippine President Marcos' cousin suddenly resigns, the army enters "red alert"

Recently, a corruption case involving the flood prevention engineering of Philippine President Marcos Cousin Martin Romualdes sparked a political storm in the Philippines. Thousands of protesters marched to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, on the 21st, to protest the government's corruption scandal.

Floodproofing becomes fireworks.

According to Xinhua News Agency, Martin Romualdez, speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives and cousin of Marcos, announced his resignation on the 17th. Rep. Faustino Lee was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives on the same day. Romualdez said in a statement on the same day that he resigned to better cooperate with the anti-corruption investigation.

Philippine House Speaker Romualdes Resigns

According to Philippine media reports, Romualdez and several lawmakers were accused of being involved in the scandal of abuse of funds for flood control infrastructure projects. Earlier, Philippine Senate President Escudero was also dismissed on September 8th due to a corruption scandal.

The corruption incident originated when Marcos first disclosed in his State of the Union speech in July this year that there were serious abnormalities in 10,000 flood prevention projects, and the amount involved amounted to 54.5 billion pesos.

On September 8, the couple attended a nationally broadcast Senate hearing, accusing them of being forced to pay massive discounts to several MPs and government public works officials to release the project.

It is that at least 17 MPs have asked them to pay a refund, up to a quarter of the total amount of the project.

Currently, Senate Speaker Escudero and House Speaker Romualdes have filed their resignations, the Ministry of Public Works has fired three engineers and announced the dismissal and criminal investigation of 15 others.

The Philippine Ministry of Finance estimates that flood prevention corruption in the period from 2023 to 2025 has caused economic losses of up to 11,8 billion pesos (about $2 billion), and it is believed that the actual amount is close to $18 billion. In recent months, the Philippines has been hit by heavy rains and flooding disasters, with many cities flooded and infrastructure troubled, highlighting severe vulnerabilities in the flood prevention system.

The flood prevention project is just the tip of the iceberg, and corruption scandals have continued in the Philippines in recent years. The state budget spending is huge, but it is difficult to convert into useful infrastructure, and there are social problems such as public health care lag. But senior officials are rarely imprisoned, which further ignite people's dissatisfaction.

Tens of thousands participated in the march.

After the corruption scandal of flood control projects broke out, the wave of anti-corruption on the streets of the Philippines continued to warm. On September 21st, local people held a large-scale * in Manila and Quezon City. On the morning of the 21st, about 13,000 people are expected to gather at Rizal Park and EDSA Shrine. The demonstrators waved flags and slogans, shouted slogans, and demanded that the people involved be brought to justice. Some * teams clashed with the police when trying to move in the direction of the presidential palace, and vehicles were burned at the scene.

Demonstrators at Manila Brake Park in the Philippines

Organizers said more than 30,000 people gathered along the main road of the capital, and the local government in Manila said more than 20,000 people were gathered in other parts of the city.President Marcos said he supported the protests, but warned that law enforcement would be taken if violence occurred.

The large-scale demonstration is a complaint by the people of the Philippines about the long-standing mismanagement scandal and a major turning point in Philippine politics.

U.S. and Australian embassies have issued travel warnings, urging their citizens to stay away from the protests for security reasons.