Marcos vows to jail dozens of flood graft-linked politicians by Christmas

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr speaks during a press conference, in Manila, on Nov. 13, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 13 November 2025
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Marcos vows to jail dozens of flood graft-linked politicians by Christmas

  • Philippine economy lost up to $2bn annually due to corruption in flood mitigation projects
  • High-profile senators, Congress members, and wealthy business people among graft suspects

MANILA: Many powerful politicians linked to corruption in Philippine flood control projects will be in jail by Christmas, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Thursday, after dozens of officials were named as suspects in a multibillion-dollar graft scandal. 

Public outrage has grown since August in the Philippines, after an audit ordered by Marcos revealed that billions of pesos worth of flood-control facilities were substandard, poorly documented, or nonexistent.  

An independent fact-finding commission Marcos created has filed criminal complaints for graft and corruption and plunder against 37 suspects — which include powerful senators, members of Congress and wealthy business people — as well as more than 80 construction company executives and nine government officials for allegedly evading taxes totaling nearly 9 billion pesos ($152 million). 

“Before Christmas, many of those named here … will have their cases completed. They will be locked up. They will not have a Merry Christmas,” Marcos said during a press briefing in Manila. 

“We don’t file cases for optics. We file cases to put people in jail.”

The Department of Finance has estimated that the Philippine economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (around $2 billion) from 2023 to 2025 due to corruption in flood control projects.

The lawsuits were also aimed at recovering the huge funds that were stolen, Marcos added. 

The graft scandal has sparked street protests in the Philippines over the last few months, with activists, former Cabinet members, Catholic church leaders, and retired generals among those calling for sweeping criminal prosecution. 

Corruption has emerged as one of the main national concerns among Filipinos for the first time in four years, according to a survey released by OCTA Research in October. 

Civil society groups and church leaders are planning more anti-corruption rallies later in November, as the controversy has flared again following massive flooding from powerful typhoons in recent weeks that submerged many parts of the country and killed at least 259 people, while displacing more than a million others. 

Philippine officials said last month that a new jail in Quezon City could take in hundreds of detainees and will be able to accommodate corruption suspects when they undergo trial.


Indonesian rescuers race to find dozens still trapped in deadly West Java landslide

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Indonesian rescuers race to find dozens still trapped in deadly West Java landslide

  • At least 47 people were killed in the landslide that tore through a mountainside village
  • Rescuers continue searching for some 80 people who remain missing as of Tuesday

JAKARTA: A massive search operation continued in Indonesia’s West Java on Tuesday with rescue workers racing to find dozens of missing people, including members of an elite marine force feared buried in a landslide that has already killed at least 47.

Days of heavy rain that inundated the province’s West Bandung regency triggered a predawn landslide on Saturday, which buried a marine training camp and some 30 houses in Pasirlangu village on the slopes of Mount Burangrang.

Rescuers have had to dig through tons of mud, debris and uprooted trees, as bad weather and unstable soil intermittently hampered search operations since the weekend.

As search operations entered their fourth day on Tuesday, Indonesian authorities mobilized heavier equipment to sift through thick mud and used drones to identify and expand search locations, said Ade Dian Permana, who heads the Search and Rescue Agency in Bandung.

“As of 5:20 p.m., the total number of bodies we have recovered since the first day until the fourth day now stands at 47,” Permana said during a press briefing on Tuesday.

“We are looking for about 80 people … The number of people impacted and missing may change, which means there could be more than what we are currently looking for.”

The number of people missing was double that reported on Monday evening, when it stood at 42.

Among those missing were members of a 23-member marine unit training for a long-duration assignment on the Indonesia-Papua New Guinea border, at least four of whom have been confirmed among the dead, Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Muhammad Ali has confirmed, while the rest remain unaccounted for.

“Heavy rain over two nights triggered the slope failure that buried their training area,” Ali told reporters on Monday.

Floods and landslides are common in Indonesia during seasonal rains from October to March.

The landslide in West Java is the latest in a string of severe weather-related disasters in the archipelagic country, where floods and landslides on Sumatra island late last year killed more than 1,200 people and displaced over half a million.

In the capital Jakarta, officials have issued work-from-home and flexible work recommendations due to extreme weather, with heavy rains triggering widespread flooding in the city since the beginning of the year.