Manila, Philippines – Thousands of people have gathered in the Philippine capital, Manila, protesting against corruption in government spending on flood-control infrastructure, in a scandal that has ensnared allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The march, organised by the Kilusang Bayan Kontra-Kurakot or the People’s Movement Against Corruption (KBKK), began at the Luneta National Park in Manila on Sunday, with protesters expected to march on to the presidential palace.
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It is the last display of public anger over the “Trillion-Peso” scandal, in which powerful politicians, including lawmakers, 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.
Extensive damage from two recent powerful typhoons, which resulted in the the deaths of more than 250 people, has fuelled the public outrage.
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 “dubious public works” while he headed an appropriations committe.
The president has denied the claims.
Among those at Sunday’s protest was 21-year-old student Matt Wovi Villanueva, who also took part on a similar protest at the presidential palace in September.
Villanueva said he was beaten and detained for five days then.
“Compared to September, we have more reasons to go back to the streets now,” Villanueva told Al Jazeera. “They keep treating us like fools. If we want real justice, we need Marcos and [Vice President Sara] Duterte to resign.”
Duterte, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte who has fallen out with Marcos, is facing separate allegations over the misuse of government funds.
Meanwhile, mainstream opposition forces, backed by the Catholic Church, organised a separate “Trillion Peso March” 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.
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 “ghost projects” in the 2025 budget.
Co also claimed that in 2024 he personally delivered suitcases containing a billion pesos (US$17m) in cash to the Marcos residence.
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.
“Anyone can go online and make all kinds of claims,” Marcos said in response.
“For it to mean something he should come home,” the president added.
With or without Co’s accusations, Raymond Palatino of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) or Bayan, one of the groups in the KBKK, said that the president bears an undeniable responsibility for fraudulent public spending.
“He 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,” Palatino told Al Jazeera.
Palatino said both Marcos and Duterte must step aside “so the nation can begin to heal and rebuild”.
Following their removal, he urged the formation of a civilian-led transition council, a temporary entity to guide the country toward political renewal.
Presidential press officer Claire Castro, however, has dismissed calls to remove the president saying they are unconstitutional and come from “vested interests”.
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.
Some 9,855 flood-control projects, worth more than 545 billion pesos ($9bn) are under investigation.
The Senate and House also conducted their own hearings into the case.
Finance Secretary told lawmakers in September that up to 118.5 billion pesos ($2 billion) for flood control projects may have been lost to corruption since 2023.
Among those implicated are Marcos’s cousin and key ally Martin Romualdez, who has denied any involvement but has stepped down as House of Representatives speaker.
The ICI, meanwhile, has yet to look into allegations of misconduct by the president.
“The ICI investigations have not inoculated him from accusations of wrongdoing,” said political science Professor Sol Iglesias from the University of the Philippines.
“Following the September action, the Marcos administration has been bleeding out its credibility. It would stretch the imagination that the president’s hands are clean, although we still haven’t seen the equivalent of a smoking gun,” she told Al Jazeera.
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