Protesters destroy a statue of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during an anti-corruption rally in Manila, Philippines, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025.
Aaron Favila/AP
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Aaron Favila/AP
MANILA, Philippines – Thousands of protesters, including Roman Catholic Church clergy, protested in the Philippines on Sunday, demanding the speedy prosecution of top legislators and officials implicated in a corruption scandal that has rocked the Asian democracy.
Leftist groups led a separate protest in Manila’s main park, demanding all guilty government officials immediately resign and face prosecution.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has long struggled to quell public outrage over rampant corruption blamed for shoddy, faulty or non-existent flood control projects in an archipelago prone to deadly floods and extreme weather in tropical Asia.
More than 17,000 police officers were deployed across Metropolitan Manila to secure separate protests. The Malacañang presidential palace complex in Manila was under security lockdown and major access roads and bridges were blocked by anti-riot police forces, trucks and barbed wire fencing.
In the deeply divided democracy, where two presidents have been ousted separately in the last 39 years partly over allegations of plunder, there have been separate calls for the military to withdraw support from the Marcos administration.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines has strongly rejected such calls and welcomed a statement on Sunday signed by at least 88 mostly retired generals, including three military chiefs, who said they “strongly condemn and reject any call for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to engage in unconstitutional acts or military adventurism.”
“The unified voice of our retired and active leaders reaffirms that the Armed Forces of the Philippines remains a pillar of stability and a steadfast guardian of democracy,” the military said in a statement.
Roman Catholic churches across the country helped lead anti-corruption protests in their districts on Sunday, with the main day-long rally held at the pro-democracy “People’s Power” monument along EDSA Highway in the capital region. Police said about 5,000 protesters, most of them wearing white, joined before noon.
Protesters chant during an anti-corruption protest in Manila, Philippines, on Sunday, November 30, 2025.
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They demanded that members of Congress, officials and construction company owners responsible for thousands of unusual flood control projects in recent years be jailed and ordered to return the government money they stole. One protester wore a shirt with the explicit message: “No mercy for the greedy.”
“If money is stolen, it is a crime, but if dignity and life are taken away, it is a sin against fellow human beings, against the country, but, most importantly, against God,” said the Rev. Flavi Villanueva, a Catholic priest who has helped many of the families of poor drug suspects killed under former President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown.
Villanueva told the crowd of protesters, “Put all the corrupt in jail and put all the murderers in jail.”
Since Marcos first raised concerns over flood control anomalies in his State of the Nation address before Congress in July, at least seven public works officials have been jailed on charges of illegal use of public funds and other corruption charges in the flood control project anomaly alone. Officials of Sunwest Corp, the construction company involved in the project, were being searched.
On Friday, Henry Alcantara, a former government engineer who admitted his involvement in the irregularities under oath in a Senate investigation, returned 110 million pesos ($1.9 million) in bribes that justice officials said he stole and promised to return more in a few weeks.
Marcos said about 12 billion pesos ($206 million) worth of assets belonging to suspects in flood control anomalies had been seized by authorities.
Marcos has vowed that at least 37 powerful senators, members of Congress and wealthy construction executives implicated in the corruption scandal will be in jail by Christmas.
Protesters at Sunday’s rallies said several more officials, including implicated senators and members of the House of Representatives, should soon be jailed and ordered to return money they stole and used to finance fleets of private jets and luxury cars, mansions and extravagant lifestyles.
AP journalists Joel Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report
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