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Thousands of people are expected to join a mass protest in Manila on Sunday amid a groundswell of anger in the Philippines against perceived corruption in government-funded flood control projects.
Dubbed the “Trillion Peso March”, the demonstration is named after a Greenpeace estimate of $17.6bn that the environmental organisation alleges is the amount skimmed from climate-related projects in 2023.
The 21 September demonstration holds symbolic historical significance, coinciding with the anniversary of the same day in 1972 when then-leader Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law.
It was a massive people-power movement that ultimately toppled the decades-long reign of Marcos, who was forced to flee the country in 1989 amid widespread public discontent and allegations of rampant corruption.
The current president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the son of the former leader, has sought to placate angry Filipinos, saying that he supports the protests.
“Do you blame them for going out on the streets?” he told reporters at a press conference this week. “If I weren’t president, I might be out in the streets with them.
“Of course, they are enraged. They are angry, I’m angry. We should all be angry, because what is happening is not right.”
Civil society and church organisations are among groups that have called for the joint demonstrations, which have parallels with outrage over alleged government corruption and privilege across the region.
A gen Z-led protest movement toppled the government of Nepal this month, while a series of demonstrations also erupted in Indonesia, sparked by privileges afforded to lawmakers, which the government has since been forced to retract.
This week angry young people in East Timor also took to the streets to demand that a plan to give lawmakers free SUVs be revoked. In the face of the unrest, the government has now scrapped the plan.
In the Philippines, public anger has been intensifying over so-called ghost infrastructure projects after Marcos put them centre stage in a July state of the nation address that followed weeks of deadly flooding.
Martin Romualdez, a cousin of President Marcos and the speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives, tendered his resignation on Wednesday.
“The issues surrounding certain infrastructure projects have raised questions that weigh not only upon me but upon this institution we all serve,” Romualdez said.
“The longer I stay, the heavier that burden grows.”
In a speech before the plenary, Romualdez said he had tendered his resignation with “a full heart and a clear conscience”.
“I do this so that the independent commission on infrastructure may pursue its mandate freely and fully – without doubt, without interference and without undue influence,” he said, adding that he unequivocally supported calls for accountability.
Last week, the owners of a construction firm accused nearly 30 House members and officials in the department of public works and highways of taking cash payments.
Marcos on Monday announced former supreme court justice Andres Reyes would head a three-person commission tasked with looking into the past decade of flood-control projects.
