Fury over corruption and 'nepo babies' as floods paralyse Philippines

Fury over corruption and 'nepo babies' as floods paralyse Philippines

Crissa Tolentino has long been resigned to floods as a way of life.

The 36-year-old public school teacher takes a paddle boat through the inundated streets nearly every day. It's the only way to travel from her home in the suburbs to the heart of Apalit, a low-lying town near the Philippine capital Manila.

The boat takes her to work, and to the clinic where she is being treated for cancer. She says she only sees dry streets for about two months in the year.

But this year she is very angry.

An unusually fierce monsoon has derailed daily life more than ever in the South East Asian nation, and sparked anger and allegations about corruption in flood control projects.

The rains have stranded millions mid-commute, left cars floating in streets that have turned into rivers and caused outbreaks of leptospirosis, a liver ailment that spreads through the excrement of sewer rats.

I feel betrayed," Ms Tolentino says. "I work hard, I don't spend too much and taxes are deducted from my salary every month. Then I learn that billions in our taxes are being enjoyed by corrupt politicians.

It's a charge that is resonating across the Philippines, where people are asking why the government cannot tame the floods with the billions of pesos it pours into infrastructure like roads, bridges and embankments.

Their anger is palpable on TikTok, Facebook and X, where they are venting against lawmakers and construction tycoons who they allege win contracts for "ghost" projects that never materialise.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr himself acknowledged this as a continuing challenge on a visit to inspect a flood control dam that he then found did not exist. The economic planning minister later said corruption had claimed 70% of public funds allotted for flood control.

The House Speaker, who has been implicated, has resigned, although he denies any wrongdoing. And the leader of the Senate has been ousted after it was found that a contractor who won a government bid was found to have donated money to his 2022 campaign, which is illegal.

Outraged Filipinos have been stitching together AI videos of lawmakers as crocodiles, a symbol of greed. A lot of the ire is also aimed at "nepo babies", the children of wealthy politicians or contractors, whose extravagant lives are all over social media.

Scrolling through her feeds, Ms Tolentino says she relates most to a rap song from 2009 which has become the soundtrack to the public fury.

Upuan, by local artist Gloc-9, questions why politicians are unable to empathise with common folk. The song's title means "seat" in Tagalog, a local language, and it channels the anger at those with parliamentary seats who seem far removed from the lives of ordinary Filipinos.

That [song] is our real situation," Ms Tolentino says. "It explains everything.

A huge anti-corruption protest is already planned for Sunday, 21 September - the anniversary of the day in 1972 when then leader Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law.

His son, who is now president - Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr - is well aware of how far public anger can go. It was anti-corruption protests that drove his father from power in 1986, ending a decades-long dictatorship that embezzled billions from the state.

More recently, anti-corruption protests forced legislative reform in Indonesia and, just last week, toppled the government in Nepal. And so on Monday, as Filipinos demanded an explanation, President Marcos Jr announced an inquiry that would "unmask the swindlers and find out how much they stole".

"If I wasn't president, I might be out on the streets with them," he told reporters.

Let them know how much they hurt you, how they stole from you. Let them know, shout at them, demonstrate - just make it peaceful.

It echoed earlier comments when he promised relief from the floods, while appearing to pin the blame elsewhere. He faulted corrupt politicians and constructions firms for the severe lack of infrastructure: "Shame on you," he said.

Then in a press conference he said he had uncovered a "disturbing" fact: the public works ministry had contracted only 15 firms to build flood control projects worth 545bn pesos ($9bn; £7.1bn).

All of those firms are now under scrutiny and the central bank has frozen their assets, but the most attention has gone to one family-owned business. It belongs to Pacifico and Sarah Discaya, who were raised in poor families but are now a wealthy, high-flying couple active on social media. Before the floods controversy, Ms Discaya was best known for her unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Pasig city.

Late last year the couple were interviewed on popular YouTube channels, where they shared their rags-to-riches story. One interviewer described it as "inspiring". But in the wake of the disastrous flooding, those videos have resurfaced as subjects of anger.

They show the couple showing off their three dozen luxury cars, including a Mercedes Benz Maybach, a Lincoln Navigator and a Porsche Cayenne. They bought some models in two separate colours, black and white.

The backlash was swift. The Discayas were summoned by the Senate and the House of Representatives for investigations, and authorities blacklisted their firm, while protesters smeared the gates to their office with mud and spray-painted the word "thief".

At a recent House hearing, Mr Discaya admitted to paying kickbacks to lawmakers - "We couldn't do anything but play along with them" - but the Congressmen disputed his allegation.

The Discayas and other contractors have accused more than a dozen lawmakers, including key allies of President Marcos, but they all denied the allegations.

The Filipino internet has also taken aim at the children of politicians and contractors suspected of misusing funds, branding them with the hashtag "nepo babies". Many are young women whose designer-clad jet-setting lifestyle on social media has drawn sarcastic comments about how they should thank taxpayers for funding their shopping and travel.

One daughter of a former congressman was called out for a single outfit, when she paired Fendi with Dior, and carried Hermes' coveted and high-priced Birkin bag. Some of these people have turned off comments on their accounts, or deactivated them altogether.

The outrage has galvanised the people behind some of the most popular social media accounts. "We will be relentless. We will be loud. We will be a mirror held up to power, and we will not look away until justice is served," said the collective called Creators Against Corruption.

And there is anger offline too. Employees of the public works department, whose engineers have been accused of aiding in the graft, have been allowed to stop wearing their uniforms following reports that they were being heckled and harassed in public.

Life under the difficulties caused by extreme weather and poor urban planning continues meanwhile.

Rhens Rafael Galang has even made a thriving business out of it. He sells overalls with rain boots sewed in to them on TikTok. His regular job is as a researcher in the government.

"I'm angry and dismayed because money allocated for flood control projects in our province went to waste, to people who used it for their personal gain," he says.

The 28-year-old, who lives in Calumpit town in one of the worst-hit provinces, always leaves the house in shorts. He then walks through flooded streets before changing into another set of clothes on dry land. Videos of his challenges have gone viral. One, which shows him wading deeper as he walked down an inundated street, got three million views.

He is at the mercy of such routines until his area gets proper storm drains and levees. "But I am hopeful that, in time, a long-term flood control project will be built in our area, that funds will be used honestly," he says.

Filipinos are no strangers to allegations of corruption - they've ousted two presidents over it.

More than a decade ago - in 2013 - lawmakers were accused of pocketing billions from their discretionary budgets for ghost projects.

Congresswoman Leila de Lima, then the secretary of justice, investigated the allegations. Now, as she finds herself confronting another huge corruption scandal, she is worried the scale has magnified, from tens of billions to hundreds of billions, she told the podcast Facts First recently.

I don't know how to feel any more. This is such a mess.

Source: BBC
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