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Philippine authorities have arrested 224 people, including at least 48 minors, after anticorruption protests in the capital Manila turned “very violent,” the country's police said Monday.
The clashes erupted Sunday when tens of thousands of demonstrators took to Manila’s streets to denounce corruption following a scandal over politicians allegedly stealing millions of dollars earmarked for “ghost” infrastructure projects that watchdogs say have cost taxpayers billions.
“Protesters turned mobs assaulted police officers with stones and anything they could get their hands on. Not satisfied with harming police officers in uniform, violent protesters set motorcycles on fire, vandalised and ransacked a business establishment,” the National Capital Regional Police said in a statement.
The Department of Health said one unidentified person died from a stab wound and was among 48 people taken to a medical center. Of those injured, 46 were protesters and two were police officers.
Police did not mention any deaths in their own report but said 131 officers were hurt in the clashes. “Although some were very serious, they are now stable and receiving medical treatment,” the police statement noted.
Manila Police District spokesperson Philipp Ines described masked demonstrators as “hip hop gangsters” and said those arrested will face charges including illegal assembly, resistance and disobedience to persons in authority, malicious mischief and arson.
“Some of those arrested were minors … They will face charges for direct assault, physical injuries, arson, and other charges that may be grounded on available evidence,” said National Capital Region Police Office Director Anthony Aberin, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency.
The protests follow a Senate investigation opened last August into alleged “anomalies in multibillion-peso flood control projects.” Totaling 9,855 projects valued at more than $9.5 billion, the work was carried out between July 2022 and May 2025, the first three years of President Bongbong Marcos’ term.
In response to the mass demonstrations, the presidential palace stated Monday the president is “willing to be investigated” over the suspected fraud. A Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) report revealed that Marcos was among those who received funds from contractors in the form of campaign contributions during the 2022 elections.
In July, Marcos acknowledged racketeering and fraud in many government-funded flood-control projects.
“Corruption and greed are undermining the ability of millions of Filipinos to survive in the face of climate change. Flood control project funds … are being plundered by corrupt government officials and contractors in the scale of hundreds of billions,” Greenpeace Philippines said in a statement on the protests.
The group estimated that as much as 1.089 trillion pesos ($19.12 billion) of the government’s climate-tagged spending may have been lost to corruption since 2023, including 560 billion pesos ($9.8 billion) in 2025 alone.
“Massive corruption on flood control projects at a time of climate change … Filipinos cannot continue to suffer the double burden of corruption and corporate impunity,” Greenpeace said.
