Mass protests erupt in Manila over flood-control corruption

Thousands marched successful Manila to vent their choler implicit a ballooning ungraded involving bogus flood-control projects believed to person outgo taxpayers billions of dollars.

Rage implicit the alleged “ghost infrastructure” projects has been mounting successful the Southeast Asian state since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr enactment them centre signifier successful a July State of the Nation code that followed weeks of deadly flooding.

Marcos said past week that helium did not blasted radical for protesting “one bit”, portion calling for demonstrations to stay peaceful.

Sunday’s protests were mostly peaceful, with tiny groups of mostly young men throwing rocks and bottles astatine police, and mounting occurrence to the tyres of a trailer utilized arsenic a barricade adjacent a span starring to the statesmanlike palace.

According to the AFP quality agency, immoderate constabulary picked up rocks and threw them backmost astatine demonstrators.

Police advancing down a partition of shields arrested 17, mostly young, radical successful 1 encounter, section authorities said.

Barely an hr later, a 2nd clash saw constabulary usage h2o cannon connected different radical of masked protesters.

It was not instantly wide if those progressive had immoderate transportation to the organised protests.

The time began with a peaceful greeting protestation successful the capital’s Luneta Park that drew astir 50,000 people, according to metropolis estimates.

Thousands much joined an day objection astatine the capital’s EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue) thoroughfare, crushed zero for the 1986 question that ousted Marcos’s dictator father.

Teddy Casino, 56, president of the left-wing confederation Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, said the radical was demanding not lone the instrumentality of stolen funds but besides situation clip for those involved.

The Department of Finance has estimated that the Philippine system mislaid up to 118.5 cardinal pesos ($2bn) from 2023 to 2025 owed to corruption successful flood-control projects.

Greenpeace has suggested the fig is really person to $18bn.

Earlier this month, the owners of a operation steadfast accused astir 30 House members and Department of Public Works and Highways officials of taking currency payments.

The ungraded has already led to enactment changes successful some houses of Congress, with House Speaker Martin Romualdez, a relative of Marcos, tendering his resignation earlier this week arsenic an probe got nether way.