Greater than half a million Filipinos rallied within the capital Manila on Sunday to demand accountability for a authorities corruption scandal that has triggered a collection of protests since August.
Sunday’s protest is a part of a three-day rally organised by the Philippine sect Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ). The present of power on Sunday by the influential spiritual bloc, popularly referred to by its acronym INC, is an entire reversal from its assist of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, whom it endorsed within the 2022 presidential race.
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Central to the continuing protest is the church’s demand for a “correct and clear” investigation into the alleged misuse of multibillion-dollar funds for flood management tasks below Marcos’s watch.
However it additionally exposes the escalating struggle for political energy between Marcos and his former ally and running-mate, Vice President Sara Duterte, whom the spiritual group continues to assist. Marcos and Duterte had a dramatic falling out simply a number of months after their landslide victory.
The corruption scandal has solely turbocharged the political feud between the nation’s two highest elected leaders and became requires Marcos’s removing earlier than his time period ends in 2028.
The removing motion is being led by supporters of Duterte in addition to some components of the INC and different teams. The INC insists it isn’t becoming a member of requires Marcos’s removing, however the presence of its members on the streets of Manila means they’re a formidable power to reckon with.
Why are folks protesting within the Philippines?
The outrage over so-called ghost infrastructure and flood control projects has been mounting within the Southeast Asian nation since Marcos put the difficulty centre stage in a July state of the nation tackle that adopted weeks of lethal flooding.
Authorities engineers, public works officers and development firm executives have testified below oath in Congressional hearings that members of Congress and public works officers took kickbacks from development firms to assist them win profitable contracts by rigging the bidding course of.
In line with authorities knowledge, the equal of $26bn was spent on flood management and mitigation programmes during the last 15 years. Of that quantity, officers testified that no less than 25 to 30 % has been funnelled as kickbacks.
To this point, the federal government has solely managed to freeze $3bn in belongings suspected of being linked to the large bribery scheme.
A collection of televised investigations and Congressional hearings detailing the alleged corruption additional heightened public anger.
Many have criticised Marcos for appearing too slowly to cease the corruption, if not for tolerating these offers carried out by his political allies, together with his cousin, the once-powerful Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Final week, a former congressman and a deputy of Romualdez, who fled the nation after being implicated over hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in lacking infrastructure funds, launched a video claiming Marcos himself was concerned, one thing the administration has derided as “wild hypothesis”.
What has been the toll of the floods?
Sunday’s protests come on the heels of two powerful typhoons that left greater than 250 folks lifeless, many as a result of flooding and failed flood management infrastructure.
In addition they come simply days after Marcos promised arrests within the corruption case earlier than Christmas.
What’s the INC?
The INC, which claims practically three million members, was based in 1914 within the Philippines by Felix Manalo, a former religious Catholic and Methodist convert.
Compared, the predominant Catholic Church has an estimated 86 million followers.
In contrast to mainstream spiritual teams, which adhere to the precept of the division of church and state, the INC endorses candidates throughout elections and encourages its members to vote as a bloc, making it a potent political power.
In 2022, it endorsed the Marcos-Duterte tandem through the elections. In 2016, its management additionally endorsed Rodrigo Duterte earlier than his win.
When the Marcos-Duterte alliance broke up, the INC sided with Duterte.
In January this 12 months, the INC held an enormous rally in Manila opposing Vice President Duterte’s impeachment, which was seen as having the silent endorsement of Marcos.
Throughout the virtually 20-year rule of Marcos’s father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr, the INC was additionally seen as a supporter of his presidency.
Regardless of their political variations, Marcos declared a particular non-working vacation to rejoice the INC’s 111th founding anniversary on July 27, 2025, demonstrating what observers level to because the group’s huge political clout.
“The influential Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) just isn’t lacking a beat,” political analyst Alex Magno wrote in a latest column within the Philippine Star newspaper.
What are the calls for of the INC-led protest?
The INC-led protest, which has been scheduled for 3 days from Sunday, November 16 to Tuesday, November 18, is demanding “correct and clear” investigation of the corruption scandal and “higher democracy”.
“Lots of people are getting flooded due to the corruption, and consequently persons are dying,” Edwina Kamatoy, one of many protesters, advised Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Lo, who’s reporting from Manila.
Aries Cortez, one other protester, complained that the federal government investigation to this point is being selective and “just isn’t going anyplace”.
The protest is being held on the Quirino Grandstand by the Manila Bay within the Philippine capital.
As of 08:00 GMT on Monday, the second day of the protest, an estimated 300,000 protesters have gathered on the park, in response to the Manila threat discount and administration workplace.
On Sunday, the Philippine Nationwide Police mentioned they’re deploying no less than 15,000 personnel all through the length of the protest.
The protesters say they aren’t demanding the ouster of Marcos. However many of their ranks have overtly expressed their disdain for the Marcos presidency, significantly after the ICC arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Who’re the opposite teams at the moment protesting towards Marcos?
About 2,000 folks, together with retired generals, held a separate anticorruption protest late on Sunday on the “Individuals Energy” monument in suburban Quezon Metropolis.
The smaller group of protesters, a lot of whom are recognized as Duterte supporters, are calling for the outright resignation of Marcos from the presidency.
In line with the police, as much as 30,000 anti-Marcos protesters are anticipated on the web site on Monday afternoon. However as of 08:00 GMT on Monday, solely 3,000 protesters have confirmed up, in response to Information 5 tv channel.
The centre-left political bloc and their civic and spiritual allies have pointedly skipped the rally, cautious that it could solely result in the return of Duterte to energy.
On Sunday, they held a separate “Run Towards Corruption” protest on the College of the Philippines. Their group have additionally been staging smaller marches each Friday.
The earlier protest in September, which additionally attracted tons of of hundreds of protesters, was primarily led by that centre-left bloc that referred to as itself the “Trillion Peso March Motion”.
A separate and smaller group of protesters additionally managed to stage its personal march close to the presidential palace that day, resulting in a violent police crackdown that resulted in no less than one dying, a number of accidents and dozens of arrests.
In latest days, the Catholic Church has additionally issued an announcement calling for transparency in authorities, however warned towards “unconstitutional” means to realize justice.
How is the federal government reacting to the protest?
In a radio interview on Monday, Presidential Spokesman Dave Gomez dismissed as “a really small group” those that need Marcos to be kicked out of workplace, including that these calling for the president’s resignation are prone to be implicated within the ongoing probe.
Gomez additionally mentioned the federal government is monitoring people who find themselves searching for to destabilise it.
He dismissed the latest allegations of former Congressman Zaldy Co, who straight implicated the president within the bribery case.
“Because the president mentioned, he is not going to even dignify the accusations,” Gomez added, pointing to the “quite a few loopholes” in them.
Late on Monday, the Palace introduced that Marcos’s government secretary and funds secretary had resigned, after each officers have been accused of getting hyperlinks to the bribery scandal.
How will it have an effect on Marcos Jr’s authorities?
Whereas Filipinos are united in anger in the direction of the Marcos administration, they’re sharply divided on the requires the president’s removing.
Some are cautious {that a} takeover by Vice President Sara Duterte wouldn’t result in any substantive change, on condition that she can also be going through allegations of corruption.
A large philosophical disparity between the 2 opposition forces, nonetheless, has prevented them from uniting towards Marcos. Extra usually, the centre-left bloc has emerged as fiercely extra anti-Duterte than anti-Marcos, placing them in a generally awkward political place.
In an announcement earlier than the INC-led protest, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Employees Normal Romeo Brawner Jr additionally made it clear that the army is not going to assist any efforts to subvert the structure, making Marcos’s removing from workplace unlikely.
What’s subsequent?
In the meantime, the so-called Trillion Peso March Motion, which organised the September 21 anticorruption rally in Manila, has introduced that it’s going to maintain its personal rally on November 30.
The group mentioned it goals to “remodel a prayer rally right into a motion” for the prosecution of all these concerned within the ongoing corruption scandal.
The group is seen as a defender of the 1987 Structure that helped pave the best way for the restoration of democracy within the nation of greater than 110 million folks.
