Thousands in Philippines protest corruption, demand return of stolen funds : NPR
Protesters destroy an effigy of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during an anti-corruption rally in Manila, Philippines, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025.
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MANILA, Philippines — Thousands of demonstrators, including clergy from the Roman Catholic Church, demonstrated in the Philippines on Sunday, calling for the swift prosecution of top lawmakers and officials implicated in a corruption scandal that has rocked Asian democracy.
Left-wing groups led a separate protest in Manila’s main park, bluntly demanding that all government officials involved resign immediately and face justice.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has sought to quell public outrage over massive corruption blamed on substandard, flawed or nonexistent flood control projects in an archipelago long prone to deadly floods and extreme weather in tropical Asia.
More than 17,000 police officers were deployed in Metro Manila to secure the various protests. Manila’s Malacanang presidential palace complex was under a security lockdown with key access roads and bridges blocked by riot police, trucks and barbed wire fences.
In a deeply divided democracy, where two presidents have been ousted separately in the past 39 years, partly over allegations of looting, there have been isolated calls for the military to withdraw support for the Marcos administration.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines has strongly rejected such calls and on Sunday welcomed a statement signed by at least 88 mostly retired generals, including three military chiefs of staff, who said they “strongly condemn and reject any call for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to engage in unconstitutional acts or military adventurism.”
“The unified voice of our retired and serving leaders reaffirms that the Armed Forces of the Philippines remains a pillar of stability and an steadfast guardian of democracy,” the military said in a statement.
Roman Catholic churches across the country helped lead Sunday’s anti-corruption protests in their districts, with the main day-long rally held in front of a pro-democracy “people power” monument along EDSA Highway in the Capital Region. Police said about 5,000 protesters, mostly dressed in white, joined them before noon.
Protesters shout slogans during an anti-corruption demonstration in Manila, Philippines, Sunday, November 30, 2025.
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They demanded that members of Congress, officials and construction company owners behind thousands of anomalous flood control projects in recent years be jailed and ordered to return the government funds they stole. One protester wore a shirt with a direct message: “No mercy for the greedy.”
“If money is stolen, it is a crime, but if dignity and lives are taken away, these are sins against human beings, against the country but, above all, against God,” said Rev. Flavie Villanueva, a Catholic priest, who helped many families of poor drug suspects killed under former President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown.
“Jail all the corrupt and jail all the killers,” Villanueva told the crowd of protesters.
Since Marcos first warned about flood control anomalies in his State of the Nation address to Congress in July, at least seven public works officials have been jailed on illegal use of public funds and other corruption charges in connection with a single flood control project anomaly. Executives from Sunwest Corp., a construction company involved in the project, were wanted.
On Friday, Henry Alcantara, a former government engineer who admitted under oath during Senate investigative hearings to his involvement in the anomalies, returned 110 million pesos ($1.9 million) in bribes that justice officials said he stole and promised to return more within weeks.
About 12 billion pesos ($206 million) in assets of suspects in flood control anomalies have been frozen by authorities, Marcos said.
Marcos promised that many of the 37 powerful senators, congressmen and wealthy construction executives implicated in the corruption scandal would be in prison by Christmas.
Protesters at Sunday’s rallies said many other officials, including senators and House members involved, should be jailed sooner and ordered to return the funds they stole and used to finance fleets of private jets and luxury cars, mansions and extravagant lifestyles.
AP journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report
