The sea of white in Manila on Sunday. Photograph: Ezra Acayan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are Filipino \u2026 that\u2019s why we\u2019re here. We have decided to unite as one people to try to make our government better, because there is so much corruption. Our money is being taken but the projects are never completed,\u201d says Edward, 20, who has come from Batangas, a province about two hours away. \u201cThere are so many floods. And when the floods come, there are so many issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The focus of the fury is on company owners, government officials and parliament members accused of pocketing billions in funds for substandard or nonexistent flood protection projects. Since the scandal began, the country\u2019s economic planning minister has said up to 70% of public funds allotted for flood control may have been lost to corruption; some senators<\/a> have estimated 50%. Government investigators have discovered more than 400 \u201cghost\u201d flood protection projects that were reported to have been completed but turned out to be nonexistent.<\/p>\n The absence of those protections is felt keenly in the Philippines, where hundreds of people have died in typhoon-related flooding over the past month. More than 20 typhoons have hit the country\u2019s territory this year, and extreme weather increasingly derails daily life. As the rally formed on Sunday, authorities and families were still searching for those missing from Typhoon Kalmaegi<\/a>, which ripped through the country in early November, killing at least 269. The 100 or so still missing are likely to also have been killed. Days after Kalgaemi blew through, Typhoon Fung-wong<\/a> arrived, causing more devastating floods, displacing 1.4 million people and killing another 28.<\/p>\n In Quezon City, thousands more people rallied at the People Power monument, in a protest led by progressive groups and retired generals. \u201cThose in power no longer act in accordance with the welfare of the people and according to the wishes of the people,\u201d Rey Valeros, the secretary general of the United People\u2019s Initiative, the group behind the protest, told local media. \u201cThey no longer listen to the cries of the majority and they conduct their own investigations into what is happening. No one is punished and no one is held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Thousands](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763432834_168_2000.jpg\")
Thousands protest in the Philippines over disappeared flood defence funds \u2013 video<\/p>\n