Police detain 7 persons of interest in flood corruption scandal
By AP, November 24, 2025Philippine authorities detained seven persons of interest, and several more were being sought in a major corruption scandal involving flood control projects, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Monday, November 24, 2025, as he tried to quell public outrage over the brazen anomalies that have implicated powerful members of Congress.
Massive corruption has been blamed for substandard or non-existent flood control projects in the poverty-stricken Southeast Asian country, long prone to deadly floods and extreme weather. Two Philippine presidents, including Marcos’ late father, were overthrown in peaceful public revolts due to alleged plunder and misrule.
The initial batch of more than a dozen persons of interest, including Zaldy Co, a former member of the House of Representatives, and government public works engineers, were indicted by the Sandiganbayan, a special anti-corruption court, in the first of what is expected to be dozens of criminal graft and corruption lawsuits that Marcos promised would lock up implicated senators, House members and wealthy construction company owners by Christmas.
The first corruption case involved irregularities in flood control projects in Oriental Mindoro province, including a river dike worth Ksh621.6 million that was undertaken by Sunwest Corp., a construction firm that officials say is owned by Co’s family.
Marcos said one person of interest was arrested and six others surrendered over the weekend to police. The arrested individual was found in a house in suburban Quezon City in the capital region, where an unspecified number of people who were trying to help hide the suspect were also arrested, he said.
“My advice to the remaining person of interest is for all of you to surrender, don’t wait to be pursued,” Marcos said in an early Monday post on his Facebook account. “This will continue, we will not stop.”
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the location of Co, who is believed to be outside the Philippines, was unknown, but three other suspects may soon surrender to the Philippine embassies in the United States, New Zealand, and Jordan and be flown back home.
“No matter where you are in the world, we will find you,” Remulla said at a news conference, where mug shots of the arrested suspects in orange detainee shirts were shown.
Witnesses have testified in Senate hearings and in an independent fact-finding commission established by Marcos that several former and incumbent senators and House members have pocketed huge kickbacks from favored construction companies, which cornered lucrative flood control contracts for years. A number of Department of Public Works and Highways officials and engineers have testified under oath in the Senate hearings that they helped arrange the corrupt deals and received large sums for doing so.
The lavish lifestyles, mansions, suitcases of cash, and fleets of luxury cars and private jets of the leading corruption suspects have sparked huge protests.
An upcoming demonstration scheduled for November 30, 2025, is backed by the dominant Roman Catholic church.