17,000 police deployed as Filipinos demand justice over ghost flood control projects
‘Put them in jail now,’ protesters chant even as Marcos promises more arrests to come from investigations into the scandal
Rage over so-called ghost flood control projects has been mounting for months in the archipelago country of 116 million, where entire towns have been buried in floodwaters driven by powerful typhoons in recent months.
“Put them in jail now!” protesters chanted as they marched down the Manila thoroughfare known as EDSA, site of the People Power Movement that helped oust Marcos’ father from power in 1986.
Ranking church officials in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation separately held mass at the site.
“Let us unite in repentance for corruption in our society,” said Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. “We need a moral and spiritual reset if we want a brighter future for the Philippines.”