MANILA, Philippines — Philippine police will arrest 18 suspects in a corruption scandal involving flood control projects that has sparked huge protests and forced implicated congressional leaders to step down, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced Friday.
Marcos has been scrambling to quell public outrage over the massive corruption, which has been blamed for substandard, defective or non-existent flood control projects in a poverty-stricken country, long prone to deadly typhoons, floodings and extreme weather in tropical Asia.
The president said the arrests were only the beginning.
The warrants were issued by the Sandiganbayan, a special anti-corruption court, against former lawmaker Zaldy Co, who has resigned from the House of Representatives and fled to an unspecified country, and 17 others, including government engineers and executives of Sunwest Corp., a constructions firm, over irregularities in a flood control project in Oriental Mindoro province.
Government prosecutors have recommended no bail for the suspects because of the scope of the irregularities in the river dike project, worth 289 million pesos ($4.8 million).
“They will be arrested, presented to the court and made to answer to the law,” Marcos said in a video message where he thanked the public for its patience. “There will be no special treatment, and nobody would be spared.”
Last week, Marcos said many of at least 37 powerful senators, members of Congress and wealthy construction executives implicated in the corruption scanda