Thousands march in Philippines, demanding Marcos resign over fraud scandal

Some carried an effigy of Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte, depicting the politicians as crocodiles and dubbed the “corrupt-codile”, while others held signs that read “Marcos Resign” and “All corrupt politicians must be held accountable”.

Organisers said they estimated the crowd to be more than 20,000.

It is the last display of public anger over the “Trillion-Peso” scandal, in which powerful politicians, including Marcos’s allies, are accused of pocketing billions of pesos in bribes for contracts on flood-control infrastructure that ended up being defective or were never built at all.

Extensive damage from two recent powerful typhoons, which killed more than 250 people, has spurred public outrage.

Two cabinet ministers have resigned over the scandal, while a former lawmaker accused in the case, Zaldy Co, has alleged that Marcos directed him to add $1.7bn to the budget for “dubious public works” while he headed an appropriations committee.

The president has denied the claims.
‘They keep treating us like fools’
Among those at Sunday’s protest was 21-year-old student Matt Wovi Villanueva, who also took part in a similar protest at the presidential palace in September. That protest turned violent with the police arresting some 300 people.
Villanueva said he was beaten and detained for five days then.

“Compared to September, we have more reasons to go back to the streets now,” Villanueva told Al Jazeera. “They keep treating us like fools. If we want real justice, we need Marcos and [Vice President Sara] Duterte to resign.”

Duterte, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who has fallen out with Marcos, is facing separate allegations over the misuse of government funds.

Meanwhile, mainstream opposition forces, backed by the Catholic Church, organised a separate “Trillion Peso March” along the historic EDSA Avenue. The group said they are only urging Duterte to resign as they wait for more concrete evidence of criminal activity by Marcos.

Some 5,000 people attended that rally.

The police force said it deployed more than 12,000 officers to Manila for the protests, and barricaded all roads leading to the Malacanang presidential palace with barbed wire and container vans, stopping the KBKK protesters about a block away from its gates.

The protesters tore down the effigy in front of the barricades, cursing the Marcos government and chanting “Jail all the corrupt!”

Earlier this month, Co, the former lawmaker, claimed that Marcos obtained more than 50 billion pesos ($852m) in kickbacks from infrastructure projects since 2022, and ordered the insertion of 100 billion pesos ($1.7bn) for so-called “ghost projects” in the 2025 budget.

Co also claimed that in 2024 he personally delivered suitcases containing a billion pesos (US$17m) in cash to the Marcos residence.

Co himself is accused of pocketing billions from the same projects and has been a fugitive since July, with Japan being his last known location.

“Anyone can go online and make all kinds of claims,” Marcos said in response. “For it to mean something, he should come home,” the president added.

With or without Co’s accusations, Raymond Palatino of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) or Bayan, one of the groups in the KBKK, said the president bears an undeniable responsibility for fraudulent public spending.

“He feigns surprise over the extent of corruption, but he drafted, signed, and implemented the budget, a budget infested with pork barrel projects and anomalous insertions,” Palatino told Al Jazeera.