Public outrage mounts against corruption in the Philippines
- Admin
- 2 minutes ago
- 3 min read
By Diana G. Mendoza
Manila-- As Filipinos watch anti-corruption protests sweep Indonesia, France and Nepal, 18-year-old Mardy Vasquez expressed impatience at why similar scenes are not yet happening in the Philippines, where news shockwaves about corruption in infrastructure projects are overwhelming.
“We are so slow burn!” the student said, envying the Gen Z-led outbursts in Nepal, which resulted in enraged crowds violently hurting and pushing corrupt public officials.
Vasquez participated in the Sept. 5 event, called “Run Against Corruption," held in the track and field oval of the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, which is open to runners and joggers, especially on Sundays.
“Finish na kayo,” (you are finished), read a banner on a supposed finish line by joggers who demanded accountability for state resources lost to anomalous infra plans.
Before this event, Filipinos held pockets of protests around metropolitan Manila, key cities and provinces to denounce the corruption in the billion-peso flood control projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways, its contractors and public officials.
The “slow burn” timeline started when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called out corrupt public officials and private contractors in his State of the Nation address in July.
After Metro Manila and several provinces suffered extensive flooding from typhoons in August, Marcos Jr. disclosed the top 15 out of over 2,000 flood control project contractors who accounted for 18 percent, or over P100 billion, of the P545 billion his government had spent to control flooding since 2022, but with little or no impact on recurrent floods.
The Department of Finance noted that the economy has lost P42.3 billion to P118.5 billion in the last two years because of flood control projects that were either incomplete or nonexistent.
In the same month, Mayor Vico Sotto of Pasig City posted on social media earlier media interviews featuring a couple, Curlee and Sarah Discaya, who own two of the 15 government contractors in question.
Sarah Discaya was Sotto's challenger in the last mayoral election.
The interviews, which highlighted their supposed “rags-to-riches” story, had them showing off more than 50 luxury vehicles, a mansion and a lavish lifestyle.
The following day, protesters swarmed, threw mud and spray-painted the words "corrupt," "thief" and "jail them" on the gate of the St. Gerrard Construction in Pasig City, one of the companies owned by the Discaya couple.
More videos and images later emerged on social media, exposing the
profligate lifestyles of other public works contractors, their families and children, dubbed “nepo-babies,” prompting many of them to deactivate and delete their social media accounts.
Sotto stressed the "six stages of corruption"—from anomalous bidding and substandard or non-existent projects, to excessive cuts supposedly reaching over half of project costs, tax evasion, underdeclaration of business taxes, and eventual entry into politics using stolen funds.
The 36-year-old mayor is one of 12 recipients of the U.S. Department of State’s inaugural International Anticorruption Champions Award in 2021, launched by the Biden administration to recognize individuals who fight corruption, defend transparency and ensure accountability in their countries.
“It may be difficult and even dangerous, but let's do our part in exposing and ending these systemic practices of corruption," said Sotto.
Newly-appointed Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon appealed for calm amid growing public outrage fanned by more revelations in congressional flood control kickbacks hearings, which implicated some senators, congressmen and the president’s cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
"The people have every right to be angry,” Dizon said, while asking the public not to quickly judge the public works department, vouching for the agency’s “more than many good and honest” employees and officials.
Dizon filed before the Ombudsman the first of many criminal complaints against public works officials, employees and contractors involved in the alleged irregular acts over flawed flood control and other infrastructure projects.
President Marcos Jr. created an independent body that would investigate corruption in flood control plans and other public and infra works over the years, covering his administration and the presidencies of the late former President Benigno Aquino III and former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Calls for mass action are growing. Church and civil society leaders are spearheading a protest rally on Sept. 21, the anniversary of martial law proclaimed by Marcos Sr. and the start of his 20-year dictatorship.
Called “A Trillion Peso March,” the protest will be held at the EDSA People Power Monument, where the peaceful revolution in 1986 that toppled the Marcos Sr. dictatorship occurred.
It was in the same venue that the public outrage, which translated into street protests in 2001, removed another corrupt president, Joseph Estrada.
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