Powerful politicians will be in jail by Christmas for corruption scandal, Philippine president says

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday that many of at least 37 powerful senators, members of Congress and wealthy businesspeople implicated in a massive corruption scandal involving flood control projects would be locked up in jail by Christmas, as he tried to quell public outrage and street protests.

Marcos said an independent fact-finding commission he created has filed criminal complaints for graft and corruption and plunder, a non-bailable offense, against the 37 suspects. Criminal complaints have also been filed against 86 construction company executives and nine government officials for allegedly evading taxes totaling nearly 9 billion pesos ($152 million).

Corruption has been blamed for substandard, defective or non-existent flood control projects across the country. It’s a especially sensitive issue in the Philippines, one of the countries most prone to deadly typhoons, floodings and extreme weather in Asia.

Typhoon Kalmaegi left at least 232 people dead last week, mostly in flash floods, with 125 others missing in the country’s central region. Super Typhoon Fung-wong lashed the northern Philippines just days later, leaving at least 27 dead, two missing and millions of people affected by flash floods and landslides.

“I know that before Christmas, the cases of many of those who were named would be concluded and they would end up in jail,” Marcos said and added without elaborating that more anomalies were set to be discovered. The lawsuits were strong and aimed to recover the huge funds that were stolen, he said.

“We don’t file cases for optics,” Marcos said. “We file cases to put people in jail.”

Marcos spoke in a televised news conference to report on progress in a crackdown he vowed to carry out in July in his annual state of the nation address before Congress. The corruption scandal has sparked public outrage and street protests, including one planned for three days starting this weekend and another on Nov. 30.

Vice President Sara Duterte, who has had a bitter political feud with Marcos, said the president also should be held accountable for signing into law the 2025 national budget that carried appropriations for anomalous infrastructure projects.

“He has a big shortcoming in his work for the nation so he can put himself in jail,” Duterte told reporters Thursday.

The government’s Anti-Money Laundering Council has issued seven orders to freeze the assets of corruption suspects, including 1,671 bank accounts, 144 real estate properties, 244 vehicles and other assets worth 6.3 billion pesos ($107 million), Marcos said.

At least 13 luxury cars and SUVs of suspects, including top European and British models, have been seized by the Bureau of Customs for various violations and an initial seven cars have been put up for auction.

“It will be an important signal, a healthy signal to see people actually starting to end up in jail for theft of public property,” Denmark’s ambassador to the Philippines, Franz-Michael Mellbin, told a business forum in Manila where the flood control anomalies were discussed.

Last month, Philippine officials unveiled a new jail that could accommodate corruption suspects when they undergo trial. The jail in suburban Quezon city could hold up to 800 detainees and officials pledged that powerful politicians would not be given any VIP treatment.

Among the infrastructure projects that were being investigated for possible anomalies were 9,855 flood control projects worth more than 545 billion pesos ($9 billion) that were supposed to have been undertaken since Marcos took office in mid-2022. In September, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto told legislators that up to 118.5 billion pesos ($2 billion) for flood control projects may have been lost to corruption since 2023 alone.

Among those implicated were lawmakers opposed to and allied with Marcos, including former House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez, the president’s cousin and key ally, who has denied any wrongdoing. Some allies of former President Rodrigo Duterte, a harsh critic of Marcos and father of the incumbent vice president, have also come under suspicion over the anomalies.

“Nobody’s immune. Nobody would be exempted in these investigations,” Marcos said.