Marcos Cashiers Aides in Attempt to Contain Scandal
Political foe Sarah Duterte seeks to capitalize as crowds take to the streets
By: Tita Valderama
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has accepted the resignations of two key cabinet officials in an attempt to ward off growing outrage over a massive public works scandal as his political nemesis, Vice President Sara Duterte, seeks to capitalize on public outrage to bring him down.
Although he is expected to survive politically, it is by far the biggest crisis for the administration of the 68-year-old Marcos, who took office three and a half years ago vowing to redeem the name of his father, who was forced to flee the country with his family in disgrace, with millions of enraged Filipinos protesting massive corruption.
Marcos has traveled the country over recent weeks, professing astonishment at failed or nonexistent flood control projects. He has said he “won’t dignify” statements by a resigned central figure in the scandal, with his press secretary Dave Gomez describing the fugitive congressman’s claims as “a bunch of hearsay” and a desperate attempt to evade accountability. “Come home, sign these under oath, and face the music.”
Amid the second day of a three-day protest, roads leading to Malacañang Palace have been blocked by layers of concrete and steel barriers topped with razor wire to keep protesters at bay, with police vehicles, fire trucks, and ambulances on standby at the intersections. Streets within a three-kilometer distance of the presidential office have been secured by authorities, some with container vans blocking the roads.
The shakeup in Marcos’s official family came with tens of thousands of members of the religious groups Iglesia ni Cristo, Jesus is Lord, and Kingdom of Jesus Christ, along with retired military generals aligned with former President Rodrigo Duterte, demanding accountability over the trillion-peso corruption scandal linked to flood-control projects and involving top government officials, including Marcos allies.
The November 16-18 protest rally is the latest display of fury over the single biggest corruption scandal in recent Philippine history, with a key figure allegedly implicating Marcos himself. It involves thousands of flood control projects made from substandard materials or simply non-existent but paid in full, with politicians and other government officials allegedly pocketing huge amounts of money while areas across the country suffer from the country’s inevitable weather-related calamities.
Iglesia ni Cristo, which claims a membership of more than 2 million, is known for its bloc-voting influence, and is widely regarded as aligned with the Duterte forces.
In the cabinet shakeup, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto will replace Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, whose son Adrian, an undersecretary in his office, was mentioned by spectacularly implicated congressman Elizaldy Co as a witness in Marcos’ alleged request for P100-billion (US$5.46 billion) worth of projects to be inserted in the P6.35 trillion (US$110.2 billion) national government budget for 2025. Co has been accused of stealing billions from the projects.
Also removed from the cabinet was Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, who supposedly relayed Marcos’ request to Co, former chairman of the appropriations committee of the House of Representatives, then headed by the president’s first cousin, Martin Romualdez, who stepped down in mid-September amid the controversies.
Frederick Go will be stepping down as special assistant to the president for investment and economic affairs to replace Recto in the finance department. Rolando Toledo, an undersecretary for budget preparation and execution, will assume Pangandaman’s post.
On November 13, Marcos appointed Charlito Martin “Charlie” Mendoza, a lawyer and a licensed geodetic engineer, as the new commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, replacing lawyer Romeo Lumagui Jr., his wedding godson and husband of lawyer Carmela Esquivas, one of First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos’ most trusted aides.
Lumagui led the filing on November 6 of tax evasion complaints before the Department of Justice against former district engineers of the Department of Public Works and Highways — Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, and Jaypee Mendoza —who have admitted participation in fraudulent flood control projects in Bulacan province, north of Manila.
Rumors about the Cabinet shakeup started circulating days before Zaldy Co, on the run overseas since July, posted on his Facebook page a recorded video on November 14, claiming that Marcos and Romualdez were the alleged masterminds behind the insertion of P100-billion worth of projects in the 2025 national budget.
Co, who has been tagged as a central figure in the flood control controversy, then published a list of projects that Marcos, through Romualdez, Pangandaman, and Adrian Bersamin, allegedly requested to be inserted into the bicameral conference committee level, after the Senate and the House of Representatives have approved their own versions of the spending program.
Some lawmakers, budget experts, and academics consider it illogical for the president to route the insertion through Co when he could have done so when his budget department was drafting the spending program, before it was even submitted to Congress.
On Sunday, Co claimed in the third in a series of bombshells that Marcos and Romualdez received P56 billion (US$949.9 million) in kickbacks from the alleged fraudulent projects. At the same time, Co disputed earlier claims by former DPWH district engineer Henry Alcantara that he pocketed P21 billion in kickbacks himself.
In the second part of his Saturday recorded message, Co showed photos of suitcases allegedly containing cash, saying he, along with his security aides Paul Estrada and Mark Tecsay, delivered to the residences of Marcos and Romualdez in North and South Forbes Park, as well as to Malacañang Palace, where the president holds office. “No money went to me. All the insertions went to the President and to Speaker Martin Romualdez,” Co said in Filipino.
VP Duterte: Marcos facing ‘profound crisis of confidence’
Sara Duterte said Marcos is facing “a profound crisis of confidence” amid allegations of corruption stemming from the flood-control scandal. She said she “stands with the millions of Filipinos” dismayed by the corruption in the Marcos government, as she acknowledged the people’s right to be outraged.
“Our right to speak and express ourselves is the foundation of democracy. The government should listen to it, not set it aside or ignore it. We Filipinos deserve better,” she said in a recorded statement released on Monday.
Organizers of the protest rally in Manila have declared that the activity was not a political gathering aimed at the downfall of the government but focused on demanding concrete actions against corruption, particularly linked to anomalous flood control projects. Bienvenido Santiago Jr., Iglesia Ni Cristo general evangelist, said the protest targets corrupt individuals, not the government as an institution.
“We want it to be clear to everyone: we are not seeking the downfall of our government as an institution. What we want is the downfall of corruption and the promotion of an honest, pro-people government,” Santiago said in Filipino.
But some of those who spoke on stage such as Jacinto Paras, former congressman and an ex-Duterte official, called for Marcos’s resignation. Jeffrey Celiz, an anchor in Apollo Quiboloy’s Sonshine Media Network International television news channel, said in a media interview and on social media posts that resolution of the flood control scandal would be faster if the military would withdraw support from the Marcos and follow the constitutional line of succession, meaning, Sara Duterte would be installed as president.
A separate gathering organized by the United People’s Initiative Fighting Corruption, a group of retired generals, held a simultaneous rally at the EDSA People Power Monument.
The INC rally organizers prevented the Duterte supporters carrying “Marcos Resign” banners from joining the first day of the gathering. The Duterte-aligned groups, Reforma Filipina and Hakbang ng Maisug, said they respected the decision of INC organizers and instead moved their assembly to Liwasang Bonifacio, where they continued to rally over separate issues.
Interior and Local Government Jonvic Remulla said his department would investigate statements made at the United People’s Initiative rally urging the ouster of Marcos or for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to withdraw support from the commander-in-chief.
“That’s close to inciting sedition, so we will investigate them. Those words have no place in civil society,” Remulla said in an interview with reporters at Camp Crame in Quezon City.
Prosecutor General Richard Fadullon said in another interview on television that a statement may be considered seditious or inciting to sedition when it induces the public to rise up against the government, to take arms against the government, or to take measures to unseat the government.
The Philippine National Police, which deployed around 16,000 of its men to secure the protest venues, said the gathering was generally peaceful. The Department of the Interior and Local Government assured the public the government is fully prepared to address threats to public order, including destabilizers.
Several teams of cops in riot gear have been deployed to avoid violence similar to September 21 anti-corruption protests by groups led by catholic and civil society organizations, which are planning another protest on November 30.