Thousands march in Philippines, demanding Marcos resign
Al Jazeera :
Tens of thousands of people have marched in the Philippine capital, Manila, demanding President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s resignation over a corruption scandal linked to government spending on flood-control infrastructure.
The rally, organised by the Kilusang Bayan Kontra-Kurakot or the People’s Movement Against Corruption (KBKK), began at the Luneta National Park in Manila on Sunday, with protesters marching on to the presidential palace.
Some carried an effigy of Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte, depicting the politicians as crocodiles and dubbed the “corrupt-codile”, while others held signs that read “Marcos Resign” and “All corrupt politicians must be held accountable”.
Organisers said they estimated the crowd to be more than 20,000.
It is the last display of public anger over the “Trillion-Peso” scandal, in which powerful politicians, including Marcos’s allies, are accused of pocketing billions of pesos in bribes for contracts on flood-control infrastructure that ended up being defective or were never built at all.
Extensive damage from two recent powerful typhoons, which killed more than 250 people, has spurred public outrage.
Two cabinet ministers have resigned over the scandal, while a former lawmaker accused in the case, Zaldy Co, has alleged that Marcos directed him to add $1.7bn to the budget for “dubious public works” while he headed an appropriations committee. The president has denied the claims.
‘They keep treating us like fools’
Among those at Sunday’s protest was 21-year-old student Matt Wovi Villanueva, who also took part in a similar protest at the presidential palace in September. That protest turned violent with the police arresting some 300 people.
The police force said it deployed more than 12,000 officers to Manila for the protests, and barricaded all roads leading to the Malacanang presidential palace with barbed wire and container vans, stopping the KBKK protesters about a block away from its gates.
The protesters tore down the effigy in front of the barricades, cursing the Marcos government and chanting “Jail all the corrupt!”
Earlier this month, Co, the former lawmaker, claimed that Marcos obtained more than 50 billion pesos ($852m) in kickbacks from infrastructure projects since 2022, and ordered the insertion of 100 billion pesos ($1.7bn) for so-called “ghost projects” in the 2025 budget.
Co also claimed that in 2024 he personally delivered suitcases containing a billion pesos (US$17m) in cash to the Marcos residence.
Co himself is accused of pocketing billions from the same projects and has been a fugitive since July, with Japan being his last known location.
“Anyone can go online and make all kinds of claims,” Marcos said in response. “For it to mean something, he should come home,” the president added.
With or without Co’s accusations, Raymond Palatino of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) or Bayan, one of the groups in the KBKK, said the president bears an undeniable responsibility for fraudulent public spending.
“He feigns surprise over the extent of corruption, but he drafted, signed, and implemented the budget, a budget infested with pork barrel projects and anomalous insertions,” Palatino told Al Jazeera.Following their removal, Palatino urged the formation of a civilian-led transition council, a temporary entity to guide the country towards political renewal.
Presidential press officer Claire Castro, however, has dismissed calls to remove the president, saying they are unconstitutional and come from “vested interests”.
‘Bleeding out credibility’
Marcos raised alarm over the scandal in July, during his State of the Nation address to Congress. In September, he formed the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) tasked with investigating officials linked to corruption.
Some 9,855 flood-control projects, worth more than 545 billion pesos ($9bn) are under investigation.
The Senate and House also conducted their own hearings into the case.
Finance Secretary told lawmakers in September that up to 118.5 billion pesos ($2bn) for flood control projects may have been lost to corruption since 2023.
Among those implicated are Marcos’s cousin and key ally, Martin Romualdez, who has denied any involvement but has stepped down as the House of Representatives speaker.
The ICI, meanwhile, has yet to look into allegations of misconduct by the president.
“The ICI investigations have not inoculated him from accusations of wrongdoing,” said political science Professor Sol Iglesias from the University of the Philippines.
She said the “Marcos administration has been bleeding out its credibility” following the September protest and the police crackdown.
“It would stretch the imagination that the president’s hands are clean, although we still haven’t seen the equivalent of a smoking gun,” Iglesias told Al Jazeera.