More protests urged vs flood scandal

PROGRESSIVE COALITIONS on Monday called for continued protests to sustain public outrage over alleged corruption in infrastructure projects, warning accountability efforts risk being derailed.

“We cannot allow politicians to use public outrage against corruption to pursue their self-serving agenda and promote a distorted and watered-down demand for accountability and justice,” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said in a statement.

Bayan said the “uncertainty” surrounding the Congress-led inquiries into alleged large-scale infrastructure anomalies shows how “unprincipled compromise, transactional politics, and political accommodation” are undermining the fight against corruption.

It added that the newly formed Malacañang-sponsored Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) “lacks teeth, independence, and transparency,” with its closed-door sessions fueling public distrust.

The alliance announced it is coordinating with various sectors to organize mass actions nationwide in October and November, including university walkouts, community noise barrages, and street protests.

Meanwhile, organizers of the “Trillion Peso March,” which staged a major protest in Metro Manila on Sept. 21 denouncing corruption and marking the 53^rd anniversary of Martial Law, are set to hold another nationwide action on Nov. 30, Bonifacio Day, which they vowed will be “bigger, wider, and fiercer” than the Sept. 21 protest.

The Trillion Peso March Movement, officially launched on Wednesday by the Church Leaders Council for National Transformation (CLCNT) and allied groups, aims to sustain public outrage through white-ribbon campaigns, noise barrages, and candlelight vigils calling for “justice, truth, and accountability,” the organizers said. — Erika Mae P. Sinaking