1000’s in Philippines protest corruption, demand return of stolen funds : NPR

MANILA, Philippines — 1000’s of demonstrators together with from the Roman Catholic church clergy protested within the Philippines on Sunday, calling for the swift prosecution of prime legislators and officers implicated in a corruption scandal that has buffeted the Asian democracy.

Left-wing teams led a separate protest in Manila’s important park with a blunt demand for all implicated authorities officers to right away resign and face prosecution.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been scrambling to quell public outrage over the large corruption blamed for substandard, faulty or non-existent flood management initiatives throughout an archipelago lengthy vulnerable to lethal flooding and excessive climate in tropical Asia.

Greater than 17,000 cops have been deployed in metropolitan Manila to safe the separate protests. The Malacanang presidential palace advanced in Manila was in a safety lockdown with key entry roads and bridges blocked by anti-riot police forces, vehicles and barbed wire railings.

In a deeply divided democracy the place two presidents have been individually overthrown within the final 39 years partly over allegations of plunder, there have been remoted requires the army to withdraw assist from the Marcos administration.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has steadfastly rejected such calls and welcomed on Sunday a press release signed by no less than 88 principally retired generals, together with three army chiefs of employees, who stated they “strongly condemn and reject any name for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to interact in unconstitutional acts or army adventurism.”

“The unified voice of our retired and energetic leaders reaffirms that the Armed Forces of the Philippines stays a pillar of stability and a steadfast guardian of democracy,” the army stated in a press release.

Roman Catholic church buildings throughout the nation helped lead Sunday’s anti-corruption protests of their districts, with the principle daylong rally being held at a pro-democracy “individuals energy” monument alongside EDSA freeway within the capital area. Police stated about 5,000 demonstrators principally sporting white joined earlier than midday.

Protesters shout slogans throughout anti-corruption protest in Manila, Philippines on Sunday Nov. 30, 2025.

Aaron Favila/AP

disguise caption

toggle caption

Aaron Favila/AP

They demanded that members of Congress, officers and development firm house owners behind hundreds of anomalous flood management initiatives lately be imprisoned and ordered to return the federal government funds they stole. A protester wore a shirt with a blunt message: “No mercy for the grasping.”

“If cash is stolen, that is against the law, but when dignity and lives are taken away, these are sins in opposition to fellow human beings, in opposition to the nation however, most significantly, in opposition to God,” stated the Rev. Flavie Villanueva, a Catholic priest, who has helped many households of impoverished drug suspects killed beneath former President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdowns.

“Jail all of the corrupt and jail all of the killers,” Villanueva advised the group of protesters.

Since Marcos first raised alarm over the flood management anomalies in his state of the nation deal with earlier than Congress in July, no less than seven public works officers have been jailed for unlawful use of public funds and different graft prices in a single flood management venture anomaly alone. Executives of Sunwest Corp., a development agency concerned within the venture, have been being sought.

On Friday, Henry Alcantara, a former authorities engineer who has acknowledged beneath oath in Senate inquiry hearings his involvement within the anomalies, returned 110 million pesos ($1.9 million) in kickbacks that justice officers stated he stole and promised to return extra in a couple of weeks.

About 12 billion pesos ($206 million) value of belongings of suspects in flood management anomalies have been frozen by authorities, Marcos stated.

Marcos has pledged that lots of no less than 37 highly effective senators, members of Congress and rich development executives implicated within the corruption scandal could be in jail by Christmas.

Protesters in Sunday’s rallies stated many extra officers, together with implicated senators and Home of Representatives members, ought to be jailed sooner and ordered to return the funds they stole and used to finance fleets of personal jets and luxurious vehicles, mansions and lavish existence.

AP journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report