Published On 21 Sep 2025
In Manila, thousands of people gathered to express their anger over a inflated scandal involving phony flood control projects that the government has allegedly cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
Since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered a State of the Nation address in July 2014, which drew widespread outrage over the so-called “ghost infrastructure” projects, it has been increasing in the Southeast Asian nation.
Marcos vowed last week that he would not hold those responsible for the “one-bit” of protests to be peaceful.
The protests on Sunday were largely peaceful, with mostly young men aimed rocks and bottles at police and igniting the tires of a trailer used as a barricade close to a bridge leading to the president’s palace.
Some police, according to the AFP news agency, threw rocks back at demonstrators.
In one encounter, police advanced behind a wall of shields, according to local authorities, who were mostly young.
A few hours later, police used water cannons on a group of masked protesters in a subsequent altercation.
Whether those involved in the organized protests had any connection was unknown at the time.
Nearly 50, 000 people attended a peaceful morning protest in the capital’s Luneta Park, according to city estimates.
The EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue) thoroughfare in the capital, where thousands of people marched in honor of Marcos’s father, was the site of the 1986 revolution.
The left-wing alliance Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, led by Teddy Casino, 56, demanded that those responsible receive prison time as well as the return of stolen funds.
According to the Department of Finance, corruption in flood control projects will cause the Philippine economy to lose up to 118.5 billion pesos ($2 billion) between 2023 and 2025.
According to Greenpeace, the figure is closer to $ 18 billion.
The owners of a construction company accused nearly 30 House members and Department of Public Works and Highways officials of accepting cash earlier this month.
Source: Aljazeera
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