More protests in the Philippines
Several months ago, there were anti-corruption protests regarding flood control corruption but again, it seems that the government has not accomplished what they were requested to do. Al Jazeera reported that there were thousands of flood defense projects across the typhoon-prone country and these were made from substandard materials or in some cases simply did not exist. At the same time during this period, there were significant storms, and so the protests are even more relevant. It has also been noted that “[t}he Department of Finance has estimated that the country lost up to 118.5 billion pesos ($2bn) to corruption in flood-control projects between 2023 and 2025, some of them referred to as “ghost infrastructure projects”.” At the same time many charges have been brought but so far no criminal actions have occurred.
Why is this important and why does it matter? To begin with what this shows is that protests regarding corruption in Manila crosses many groups, not simply the youth group. This has covered a range of citizens from youth to retirees and church supporters, all of whom believe that their government is not doing what it should be doing as well as trying to bring this to the forefront. Though the earlier protests turned violent, it seems that there were lessons learned and so far, these protests have been peaceful. The other change is that the messages coming from the government seem to be more supportive of rooting out corruption, even if it is closer to the most senior members of the government. With the eyes of the world on these protests, and the fact that they are more peaceful, this might be a greater provocation and might move change forward. With ongoing monitoring of the protests by external international media, keeping up the pressure, this might have a better impact than the earlier protests. But, like many of these protests, time will tell if they will accomplish a result that will bring money back to the government, and provide citizens with better flood relief.
Link:
https://thediplomat.com/2025/11/hundreds-of-thousands-rally-against-corruption-in-the-philippines/