Summary
Highlights
A former state-employed engineer's testimony in Congress, backed by photos of alleged kickback money, sparked public outrage over corruption in flood control projects. Protests have moved from online to the streets, demanding accountability and transparency. President Cardinal Marcus Jr. established an independent commission to investigate, though protesters question his involvement in approving 'bloated budgets'.
Protesters caution President Marcos Jr. against following his father's footsteps, who is accused of amassing $10 billion in looted funds. His cousin, the Speaker of the House, is also implicated in the current corruption scheme. Despite this, the current president projects himself as an anti-graft crusader, exposing 'substandard' and 'ghost projects'.
Examples of corruption include a construction site reportedly only started last month but officially declared complete in June 2024, at a cost of $1.7 million. A newly built river embankment wall in a neighboring town left sections open, leading to continued flooding. These instances raise questions about the $10 billion spent on flood prevention infrastructure in the last three years, leading protesters to conclude that 'greed, not flooding, is killing people'.