MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine police arrested 49 people suspected of threw rocks, bottles and fire bombs at officers and packing the president’s roads and bridges leading to the presidential palace on Sunday, but a peaceful anti-corruption rally took place in the capital, officials said.
The brawl outside the country’s seat of power unfolded, with over 33,000 other protesters gathered at Manila’s historic parks and democratic monuments. They expressed their anger towards A Corruption scandal It is said that lawmakers, staff and construction company owners are involved and have pocketed huge kickbacks from flood control projects in poor Southeast Asian countries, which are regularly buffeted by storms and typhoons.
According to Manila Police, around 100 major clubs using the club have gone wild with around 100 people, waving Philippine flags, displaying carton posters with anti-corruption slogans, and injured around 70 Manila law enforcers. Schools have been cancelled due to violence.
Police lobbed tear gas to attempt to disperse attackers who blew graffiti off the walls, knocked down steel posts, crushed glass panels, and looted the lobby of budget accommodation along popular roads dotted with university campuses, banks and restaurants.
Hours after the attack, police have not yet identified the attacker. Several of the attackers carried black flags with skulls and crossbone caricatures. It was also unclear whether they had previously participated in peaceful protests before heading to the Presidential Office. It was not immediately known whether President Marcos Jr. was at the Palace of President Malacanan during Chaos.
Police said in a statement after the arrest that the situation was “included,” but warned that violence and vandalism would not be tolerated.
Protesting corruption
“It’s bad to be suffering from poverty, we lose our homes, our lives, our future, and they rave about their big fortunes from luxury cars, foreign travel and taxes paying for bigger business transactions,” student activist Althea Trinidad told the Associated Press in Manila.
Trinidad lives in Bulacan, a flood-prone province in northern Manila, and authorities say the flood control projects are being investigated as being substandard or absent.
“Our aim is not to be unstable, but to strengthen democracy,” said Cardinal Pablo Virgirio David, head of the Philippine Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a statement. He urged the public to demonstrate peacefully and demand accountability.
Marcos highlighted the annual flood control corruption scandal in July Nation speech.
He later formed an independent committee to investigate what he said in many of the 9,855 flood control projects, which are more than P545 billion ($9.5 billion) that appear to have been in place since he took office in mid-2022. He called the scale of corruption “terrifying” and accepted the resignation of the Secretary of Public Works.
a A wealthy couple Those who ran several construction companies that won lucrative flood control project contracts showed dozens of European and American luxury cars they owned during media interviews. The fleet included a British luxury car worth 42 million pesos ($737,000) that he said he bought because it came with a free umbrella.
