More than 17,000 police officers were deployed in metropolitan Manila to secure the separate protests. The Malacanang presidential palace complex in Manila was in a security lockdown with key access roads and bridges blocked by anti-riot police forces, trucks and barbed wire railings.<\/p>\n
In a deeply divided democracy where two presidents<\/a> have been separately overthrown in the last 39 years partly over allegations of plunder, there have been isolated calls for the military to withdraw support from the Marcos administration.<\/p>\n The Armed Forces of the Philippines has steadfastly rejected such calls and welcomed on Sunday a statement signed by at least 88 mostly retired generals, including three military chiefs of staff, who said they \u201cstrongly condemn and reject any call for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to engage in unconstitutional acts or military adventurism.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe unified voice of our retired and active leaders reaffirms that the Armed Forces of the Philippines remains a pillar of stability and a steadfast guardian of democracy,\u201d the military said in a statement.<\/p>\n Roman Catholic churches across the country helped lead Sunday\u2019s anti-corruption protests in their districts, with the main daylong rally being held at a pro-democracy \u201cpeople power\u201d monument along EDSA highway in the capital region. Police said about 5,000 demonstrators mostly wearing white joined before noon.<\/p>\n They demanded that members of Congress, officials and construction company owners behind thousands of anomalous flood control projects in recent years be imprisoned and ordered to return the government funds they stole. A protester wore a shirt with a blunt message: \u201cNo mercy for the greedy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf money is stolen, that\u2019s a crime, but if dignity and lives are taken away, these are sins against fellow human beings, against the country but, most importantly, against God,\u201d said the Rev. Flavie Villanueva<\/a>, a Catholic priest, who has helped many families of impoverished drug suspects killed under former President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s crackdowns.<\/p>\n \u201cJail all the corrupt and jail all the killers,\u201d Villanueva told the crowd of protesters.<\/p>\n Since Marcos first raised alarm over the flood control anomalies in his state of the nation address before Congress in July, at least seven public works officers have been jailed<\/a> for illegal use of public funds and other graft charges in one flood control project anomaly alone. Executives of Sunwest Corp., a construction firm involved in the project, were being sought.<\/p>\n On Friday, Henry Alcantara, a former government engineer who has acknowledged under oath in Senate inquiry hearings his involvement in the anomalies, returned 110 million pesos ($1.9 million) in kickbacks that justice officials said he stole and promised to return more in a few weeks.<\/p>\n About 12 billion pesos ($206 million) worth of assets of suspects in flood control anomalies have been frozen by authorities, Marcos said.<\/p>\n
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