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Philippine police and other law enforcement agencies are moving to arrest 18 suspects in a flood control corruption scandal that has ignited massive street protests and toppled powerful congressional leaders, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced Friday.
At the center of the case is former Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, who has resigned from the House of Representatives and fled abroad. The Sandiganbayan, the country’s anti-graft court, has issued warrants of arrest for Co and 17 others, including engineers from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and executives of Sunwest Corp., over alleged irregularities in a 289-million-peso river dike project in Oriental Mindoro.
The charges include one count of malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents under Article 217 in relation to Article 171(4) of the Revised Penal Code, along with two counts of graft under Sections 3(e) and 3(h) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019) against Co, regional officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH–Mimaropa), and directors of Sunwest Corporation, a construction firm historically linked to Co’s family.
According to prosecutors, the dike project along the Mag-Asawang Tubig River was so riddled with substandard or non-existent work that they have recommended no bail for the accused, citing the scale of the alleged wrongdoing and the amount of public money involved. The project was meant to protect a flood-prone province in a country already battered regularly by typhoons, flooding, and extreme weather. Instead, investigators say, it became a vehicle for graft.
Marcos, speaking in a video message posted on his official social media accounts, framed the warrants as a turning point in his promised crackdown on corruption in public works. He emphasized that the cases filed by the Office of the Ombudsman were built on evidence gathered by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) and the DPWH, not on rumor or politics. The president vowed that Co and the other accused would be treated like any other defendants.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla and the National Bureau of Investigation confirmed that law enforcement teams have been deployed to track down and arrest the suspects. Immigration authorities have issued orders to prevent those still in the Philippines from leaving the country, while officials prepare to seek Interpol’s help to locate Co, who was last reportedly seen in Japan. If necessary, they plan to request a Red Notice to facilitate his arrest overseas.
The Mindoro case is only the first to reach court in what has become one of the biggest corruption scandals of the Marcos administration. At least 9,855 flood control projects worth more than 545 billion pesos, funded since Marcos took office in mid-2022, are now under investigation for being substandard, defective, overpriced, or entirely fictional. Finance officials have told lawmakers that up to 118.5 billion pesos may have been siphoned off since 2023 alone.
The revelations have triggered huge demonstrations in Manila and other cities, with protesters demanding that lawmakers, contractors, and officials be jailed. The political fallout has already forced prominent figures to step down, including House Speaker Martin Romualdez and other congressional leaders implicated in the budget process. Several former and sitting senators, such as former Senate President Chiz Escudero, have come under investigation and publicly denied receiving kickbacks. Allies of former President Rodrigo Duterte have also been dragged into the controversy.
Marcos has repeatedly promised that many of those implicated in the flood-control scandal will be “in jail by Christmas.”
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At the center of the case is former Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, who has resigned from the House of Representatives and fled abroad. The Sandiganbayan, the country’s anti-graft court, has issued warrants of arrest for Co and 17 others, including engineers from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and executives of Sunwest Corp., over alleged irregularities in a 289-million-peso river dike project in Oriental Mindoro.
The charges include one count of malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents under Article 217 in relation to Article 171(4) of the Revised Penal Code, along with two counts of graft under Sections 3(e) and 3(h) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019) against Co, regional officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH–Mimaropa), and directors of Sunwest Corporation, a construction firm historically linked to Co’s family.
According to prosecutors, the dike project along the Mag-Asawang Tubig River was so riddled with substandard or non-existent work that they have recommended no bail for the accused, citing the scale of the alleged wrongdoing and the amount of public money involved. The project was meant to protect a flood-prone province in a country already battered regularly by typhoons, flooding, and extreme weather. Instead, investigators say, it became a vehicle for graft.
Marcos, speaking in a video message posted on his official social media accounts, framed the warrants as a turning point in his promised crackdown on corruption in public works. He emphasized that the cases filed by the Office of the Ombudsman were built on evidence gathered by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) and the DPWH, not on rumor or politics. The president vowed that Co and the other accused would be treated like any other defendants.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla and the National Bureau of Investigation confirmed that law enforcement teams have been deployed to track down and arrest the suspects. Immigration authorities have issued orders to prevent those still in the Philippines from leaving the country, while officials prepare to seek Interpol’s help to locate Co, who was last reportedly seen in Japan. If necessary, they plan to request a Red Notice to facilitate his arrest overseas.
The Mindoro case is only the first to reach court in what has become one of the biggest corruption scandals of the Marcos administration. At least 9,855 flood control projects worth more than 545 billion pesos, funded since Marcos took office in mid-2022, are now under investigation for being substandard, defective, overpriced, or entirely fictional. Finance officials have told lawmakers that up to 118.5 billion pesos may have been siphoned off since 2023 alone.
The revelations have triggered huge demonstrations in Manila and other cities, with protesters demanding that lawmakers, contractors, and officials be jailed. The political fallout has already forced prominent figures to step down, including House Speaker Martin Romualdez and other congressional leaders implicated in the budget process. Several former and sitting senators, such as former Senate President Chiz Escudero, have come under investigation and publicly denied receiving kickbacks. Allies of former President Rodrigo Duterte have also been dragged into the controversy.
Marcos has repeatedly promised that many of those implicated in the flood-control scandal will be “in jail by Christmas.”
The post Philippines moves to arrest 18 in flood-control graft scandal as protests mount appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.