Philippine police arrest 17 for hurling rocks as thousands peacefully protest corruption
MANILA, PHILIPPINES: Philippine police arrested 17 people — many dressed in black and wearing face masks — after they set fire to the tyres of a barricade truck and threw rocks at riot officers securing a bridge and nearby roads leading to Malacañang Palace in Manila on Sunday.
The brief but chaotic incident did not involve the thousands of protesters who joined two large, peaceful anti-corruption demonstrations elsewhere in the capital.
The violence prompted a security lockdown at the presidential palace, where access roads were blocked by uniformed personnel.
It was not immediately clear whether those arrested had also taken part in the peaceful rallies, where some 18,000 people converged on a national park and a democracy shrine along the EDSA highway.
Police said the situation was “contained” but warned that violence and vandalism would not be tolerated.
“We respect the public’s right to peaceful assembly, but we strongly appeal to everyone to remain calm and refrain from violence,” the force added.
Later, dozens of fellow protesters ran to another road near the palace, sprayed graffiti on walls and concrete posts, waved Philippine flags and displayed posters with anti-corruption slogans. Police responded with tear gas and made further arrests.
Protesting corruption
The thousands of peaceful protesters took to the streets to express their outrage over a corruption scandal involving lawmakers, officials and businesspeople who allegedly pocketed huge kickbacks from flood-control projects in the poverty-stricken and storm-prone Southeast Asian country.
“I feel bad that we wallow in poverty and lose our homes, our lives and our future while they rake in a big fortune from our taxes, which pay for their luxury cars, foreign trips and corporate transactions,” student activist Althea Trinidad told The Associated Press in Manila.
Trinidad lives in Bulacan, a flood-prone province north of Manila, where officials say most flood-control schemes are now under investigation as substandard or nonexistent.
“Our purpose is not to destabilise but to strengthen our democracy,” Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said. He urged the public to demonstrate peacefully and demand accountability.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr first highlighted the scandal in July in his annual State of the Nation address. He later established an independent commission to investigate anomalies in many of the 9,855 projects worth more than 545 billion pesos ($9.5 billion) launched since mid-2022. He described the scale of corruption as “horrible” and accepted his public works secretary’s resignation.
Outrage grew when a wealthy couple behind several winning construction firms displayed dozens of European and American luxury cars during media interviews, including a British model costing 42 million pesos ($737,000) bought, they said, because it came with a free umbrella.
Under intense public criticism, the couple, Sarah and Pacifico Discaya, later identified during a televised Senate inquiry at least 17 House of Representatives legislators and public works officials who allegedly forced them to pay huge kickbacks so they could secure flood-control projects in an explosive testimony.
Two prominent senators were later implicated in the scandal in a separate House inquiry. All those named denied wrongdoing but they face multiple investigations.
Senate President Francis Escudero and House Speaker Martin Romualdez separately stepped down in the widening fallout from the scandal.
By RSS/AP
