Manila, Philippines<\/strong> \u2013 Thousands of people have gathered in the Philippine capital, Manila, demanding President Ferdinand Marcos Jr\u2019s resignation over a corruption scandal linked to government spending on flood-control infrastructure.<\/p>\n The march, organised by the Kilusang Bayan Kontra-Kurakot or the People\u2019s Movement Against Corruption (KBKK), began at the Luneta National Park in Manila on Sunday, with protesters marching on to the presidential palace.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n It is the last display of public anger over the \u201cTrillion-Peso\u201d scandal, in which powerful politicians, including Marcos\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Extensive damage from two recent powerful typhoons, which killed more than 250 people, has spurred public outrage.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cdubious public works\u201d while he headed an appropriations committee.<\/p>\n The president has denied the claims.<\/p>\n Among those at Sunday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Villanueva said he was beaten and detained for five days then.<\/p>\n \u201cCompared to September, we have more reasons to go back to the streets now,\u201d Villanueva told Al Jazeera. \u201cThey keep treating us like fools. If we want real justice, we need Marcos and [Vice President Sara] Duterte to resign.\u201d<\/p>\n Duterte, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who has fallen out with Marcos, is facing separate allegations over the misuse of government funds.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, mainstream opposition forces, backed by the Catholic Church, organised a separate \u201cTrillion Peso March\u201d along the historic EDSA Avenue. The group said they are only urging Duterte to resign as they wait for more concrete evidence of criminal activity by Marcos.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cghost projects\u201d in the 2025 budget.<\/p>\n Co also claimed that in 2024 he personally delivered suitcases containing a billion pesos (US$17m) in cash to the Marcos residence.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone can go online and make all kinds of claims,\u201d Marcos said in response.<\/p>\n \u201cFor it to mean something, he should come home,\u201d the president added.<\/p>\n With or without Co\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cHe 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,\u201d Palatino told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Palatino said both Marcos and Duterte must step aside \u201cso the nation can begin to heal and rebuild\u201d.<\/p>\n Following their removal, he urged the formation of a civilian-led transition council, a temporary entity to guide the country towards political renewal.<\/p>\n Presidential press officer Claire Castro, however, has dismissed calls to remove the president, saying they are unconstitutional and come from \u201cvested interests\u201d.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Some 9,855 flood-control projects, worth more than 545 billion pesos ($9bn) are under investigation.<\/p>\n The Senate and House also conducted their own hearings into the case.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Among those implicated are Marcos\u2019s cousin and key ally, Martin Romualdez, who has denied any involvement but has stepped down as the House of Representatives speaker.<\/p>\n The ICI, meanwhile, has yet to look into allegations of misconduct by the president.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ICI investigations have not inoculated him from accusations of wrongdoing,\u201d said political science Professor Sol Iglesias from the University of the Philippines.<\/p>\n She said the \u201cMarcos administration has been bleeding out its credibility\u201d following the September protest and the police crackdown.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would stretch the imagination that the president\u2019s hands are clean, although we still haven\u2019t seen the equivalent of a smoking gun,\u201d Iglesias told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Manila, Philippines \u2013 Thousands of people have gathered in the Philippine capital, Manila, demanding President Ferdinand Marcos Jr\u2019s resignation over a corruption scandal linked to government spending on flood-control infrastructure. The march, organised by the Kilusang Bayan Kontra-Kurakot or the People\u2019s Movement Against Corruption (KBKK), began at the Luneta National Park in Manila on Sunday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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