Fury over corruption and ‘nepo babies’ as floods paralyse daily life

Krisa Toleinino has always resigned from the floods as a means of life.

The 36 -year -old public school takes a majestic boat across the closed streets almost every day. It is the only way to travel from her suburban home to Apalit, a low city near the Philippine capital, Manila.

The boat takes it to work, and to the clinic that is treated for cancer. She says she only sees dry streets for two months a year.

But this year is very angry.

The monsoon winds unusually removed daily life than ever in the country of Southeast Asia, and sparked anger and allegations about corruption in flood control projects.

Millions of millions of millions were cut off in the middle of the road, and cars that float in the streets that turned into rivers and caused prevalence of premium disease, a liver disease that spreads through the stools of sewage mice.

“I feel betrayal,” says Ms. Tolintino. “I am working hard, I do not spend a lot and taxes are deducted from my salary every month. Then I know that billions in our taxes are of corrupt politicians.”

It is a charge that echoes throughout the Philippines, as people ask why the government is unable to tame the floods with billions of bizo in infrastructure such as roads, bridges and wounds.

Their anger is clear on Tiktok, Facebook and X, where they compete against legislators and construction federations who claim victory contracts for “Ghost” projects that are never achieved.

President Ferdinand “Boungong”, Marcus Junior himself, admitted that he was a continuous challenge to a visit to inspect the anti -flooding Dam was not present. The Minister of Economic Planning later said that corruption has claimed 70 % of the public funds for fighting floods.

The Speaker of Parliament, who was involved, resigned, although he denied any violations. The Senate leader was expelled after it was found that the contractor who won a government offer had donated money for his campaign for the year 2022, which is illegal.

The angry Philippines have sewed videos of artificial intelligence for legislators as crocodiles, a symbol of greed. A lot of anger also aims at “Nebu’s children”, and the children of wealthy politicians or contractors, whose exorbitant lives are throughout social media.

Mrs. Tulaino, who is going through her extracts, says she relates to the rap music from 2009 and that has become the soundtrack of public anger.

Upuan, by the local artist GLOC-9, is embodied by the reason why politicians are unable to sympathize with the common people. The title of the song means “SEAT” in Tagalog, which is a local language, and it reduces anger at people with parliamentary benches that seem far from the lives of the ordinary Filipinos.

“Who – which [song] Tulaino says, it is our real situation, and it explains everything. “

A huge protest of anti -corruption is already already scheduled for Sunday September 21 – today’s anniversary in 1972 when leader Ferdinand Marcus imposed at that time.

His son, who is now president – Ferdinand “Boungong” Marcus Junior – is well aware of the general anger. It was the anti -corruption protests that paid his father from power in 1986, as it ended a decades -long dictatorship that faded billions of dollars from the state.

Recently, anti -corruption protests were forced into legislative reform in Indonesia, and only last week, the government toppled in Nepal. Thus on Monday, as the Philippines called for an explanation, President Marcus Junior announced an investigation “that would reveal the fraudsters and know the amount of their stolen.”

“If I am not a president, I may be in the streets with them,” he told reporters.

“Let them know how much they harm you, and how they stole from you. Let them know, scream at them, appear – just make it peaceful.”

The previous comments were repeated when he promised relief from the floods, while he appeared to blame elsewhere. He was mistaken in corrupt politicians and construction because of the extreme lack of infrastructure: “Shame on you.”

Then in a press conference he said that he discovered a “annoying” fact: the Ministry of Public Works did not say only 15 companies to build flood control projects worth 545 billion dollars (9 billion dollars; 7.1 billion pounds).

All of these companies are now subject to scrutiny, and the central bank has frozen their assets, but most of the attention has gone to one family owned by the family. He belongs to Pacifico and Sarah Discaya, who grew up in poor families but are now a rich couple and the families of activists on social media. Before the controversy of the floods, Mrs. Discaya was famous for her unsuccessful attempt to become the mayor of Pasig.

Late last year, the couple was interviewed on the famous YouTube channels, where they shared the story of Rags-To Riches. One of the interviews described it as “inspiring”. But in the aftermath of disastrous floods, these videos appeared as anger.

They appear for the couple who appear on three dozens of luxury cars, including the Mercedes -Benz Maybach, Nincoln Navigator and Porsche Cayenne. They bought some styles for two separate, black and white.

The reverse reaction was quickly. Discayas was summoned by the Senate and the House of Representatives for investigations, and the authorities listed their company, while the demonstrators stood the gates to their office with mud and sprayed the word “thief”.

In a recent hearing in the House of Representatives, Mr. Discaya admitted to paying discides to the legislators – “We could not do anything but play with them” – but members of Congress opposed his claim.

Discayas and other contractors accused more than ten lawmakers, including the main allies of President Marcus, but they all denied these allegations.

The Filipino Internet has also reached the goal of the children of politicians and contractors suspected of abuse of money, describing them as an abyss “Nebu’s children”. Many young women who performed a lifestyle designed on social media sarcastic comments on how to thank taxpayers for the financing of shopping and travel.

One daughter was called for a former Congress member to get one group, when Vindi tied with Dior, and bore the desirable and high -price Pirkin Hermes bag. Some of these people have stopped comments on their accounts, or completely abolished them.

Anger has motivated people behind some of the most popular social media accounts. “We will be unabated. We will be loud. We will be a mirror that holds power, and we will not look far until justice is offered.”

There is anger at non -contact mode as well. The employees of the Public Works Department, whose engineers, were accused of helping with graft to stop wearing the uniform after reports that they were harassed and harassed in public places.

Life continues in light of the difficulties caused by the harsh weather and the weakness in urban planning.

Rafael Raphael Galang has even had prosperous works. He sells a miniser with rain shoes sewing them on Tiktok. His regular job is a government researcher.

He says: “I am angry and dismayed because the money allocated to the anti -flood projects in our boycott went to waste, for the people who used them to achieve their personal gains.”

The 28 -year -old, who lives in the town of Kalti in one of the worst provinces, always leaves the house in short pants. Then he walks in the streets that were flooded by water before turning into another group of clothes on dry floor. Videos have become videos. One, who shows deeper waged walking on a conceited street, got three million views.

He is at the mercy of such a routine until his area gets suitable banks and storms. “But I hope it is in time, a long -term project will be built to combat floods in our region, and money will be used honestly,” he says.

The Filipinos are not strangers to the allegations of corruption – they overthrew heads of it.

More than a decade ago – in 2013 – legislators were accused of billions of appreciation budgets for ghost projects.

The Congress member Lila de Lima, Minister of Justice, has made these allegations. Now, when she finds herself facing another scandal of corruption, she is concerned that the scale has sworn, from tens of billions to hundreds of billions.

“I don’t know how to feel anymore. This is a chaos.”