MANILA: Anxious Filipino parents braved the rain outside Manila’s police headquarters Monday, after more than 200 people – including dozens of children – were arrested in clashes that erupted during weekend anti-corruption demonstrations. At least 88 minors were among those taken into custody as police deployed water cannon and deafening sirens against crowds of mostly […]
Read MoreBy Alan Robles Half a century after his father declared martial law, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is confronting his own crisis: a corruption scandal of dizzying scale, coup rumours in the air and tens of thousands of Filipinos preparing to march on the streets of Manila. Adding to the pressure, Beijing has signalled a […]
Read MoreBULACAN, Philippines: On the Philippine island of Pugad, street food vendor Maria Tamayo wakes before her grandchildren to begin the backbreaking work of removing seawater from her home scoop by scoop with a plastic dustpan. The routine has been the same ever since the rising tides of Manila Bay began swallowing the island — a […]
Read MoreBy Raissa Robles Coup rumours swirled in the Philippine capital over the weekend, with the military placed on “red alert” and all leave for its personnel cancelled, ahead of planned protests against corruption in state-funded flood control projects. Sources close to and within the military confirmed to This Week in Asia that certain private individuals, […]
Read MorePhilippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said no one will be exempt from an independent investigation into alleged anomalies in infrastructure projects, as he vowed to rebuild public trust as protests over corruption loom. Marcos assured the graft-weary public that the probe would break from past efforts, calling it an “inflection point” in how the government […]
Read MoreBy Sam Beltran A growing wave of anger in the Philippines over corruption-tainted flood control projects is spurring activism among university students and other Filipinos that observers say evokes the spirit of past political uprisings. At the University of the Philippines’ main campus in Quezon City, over 3,000 students and lecturers left their classrooms to rally […]
Read MoreBy Raissa Robles Allies of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte lost their grip in the Senate on Monday after 15 lawmakers backed a leadership change that could alter the balance of power over corruption probes and Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio’s scuttled impeachment trial. The process took just 24 minutes – from a motion to declare the […]
Read MoreBy Raissa Robles A controversy over an alleged overpriced firearms deal has intensified in the Philippines, with insiders claiming that national police chief Nicolas Torre III was removed from his post for rejecting a proposed procurement of 80,000 assault rifles – a transaction some believe was padded by billions of pesos. While officials framed Torre’s […]
Read MoreBy Raissa Robles A day after Philippine Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan refused to resign amid mounting public outrage over ghost flood projects worth billions, President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr replaced him with high-performing Transport Secretary Vince Dizon. A former high government official who spoke on condition of anonymity told this […]
Read MoreBy Sam Beltran Concerns are growing in the Philippines over Beijing’s intentions towards Batanes, the country’s northernmost province, after a spike in Chinese social media claims and unusual coastguard patrols near the archipelago, with analysts warning these narratives could influence public opinion and complicate Manila’s security calculations. On the Chinese platform Douyin, some users have […]
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