Jonathan Frederic De Santos

Activists gather on Mendiola Street in Manila on October 21, 2025 to mark National Peasant Month and to demand accountability over corruption in flood control projects. ABS-CBN News file

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ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1764473340780YS.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Activists gather on Mendiola Street in Manila on October 21, 2025 to mark National Peasant Month and to demand accountability over corruption in flood control projects. <em>ABS-CBN News file</em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — Two months since tens of thousands gathered at the People Power Monument and Luneta Park to demand the imprisonment of those linked to corruption in flood control projects, nine of 16 charged over an anomalous project in Oriental Mindoro are in government custody.</p><p>None of them are high-profile individuals, though, and resigned congressman Zaldy Co — both accused and accuser in the controversy — remains at large abroad.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/26/9th-accused-in-mindoro-flood-control-case-arrested-appears-before-sandiganbayan-1003"><strong>9th accused in Mindoro flood control case arrested, appears before Sandigan<br/></strong></a></div><p>He has been releasing videos accusing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/15/romualdez-says-co-s-allegations-do-not-hold-water-in-court-1750">and his relatives</a> of being behind the whole mess and taking billions in kickbacks from the projects.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/27/sandro-marcos-says-to-face-ici-any-time-after-zaldy-co-claims-0925"><strong>Sandro Marcos says ready to face ICI ‘any time’ after Zaldy Co claims<br/></strong></a></div><p>The Palace has played down the allegations as hearsay and with no legal value since they were not made under oath </p><p>The president meanwhile said that <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/26/marcos-jr-zaldy-co-trying-to-negotiate-with-government-to-keep-passport-1301">Co is using the videos as leverage<strong></strong></a>, promising that no more will be released <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/27/zaldy-co-lawyer-denies-blackmail-attempt-vs-marcos-gov-t-1119">if the government stops moves to cancel his passport</a>.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/14/-nov-14-timeline-of-flood-control-scandal-according-to-marcos-0938"><strong>Timeline of flood control scandal, according to Marcos<br/></strong></a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>FIRST BATCH OF CASES FILED AT SANDIGANBAYAN</strong></div><p>Co is among the 16 accused in the first batch of cases that the Office of the Ombudsman filed at the Sandiganbayan with Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla saying the office will look into new recommendations by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure — the body Marcos Jr. created to investigate the controversy — and the Department of Public Works and Highways.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/26/ici-eyes-raps-vs-congtractors-1352"><strong>ICI seeks raps vs lawmakers with construction firms that bagged DPWH projects</strong></a></div><p>&quot;Maraming masasaktan dito (This will hurt a lot of people)… More than 10 percent of Congress will be affected,” Remulla said of the investigations..</p><p>Congress is actually composed of the House of Reprsentatives and the Senate but is often used to refer to just the House. </p><p>While officials of the DPWH&#x27;s MIMAROPA regional office have been arrested, directors of Sunwest Corp. — a company that Co founded — are the subject of a manhunt, with the police and the National Bureau of Investigation <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/28/arrest-attempt-on-sunwest-execs-in-mindoro-flood-control-case-1008">searching a Pasay City hotel for them on Friday</a>.</p><p>“Lahat ng properties na involved ‘yung (All of the properties linked to) Sunwest, we will go there. We will exert effort to locate them,” Police Col. John Guiagui, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region chief, said after they failed to find the executives.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/6/zaldy-co-s-lawyer-says-accusations-against-client-must-be-specific-detailed-1628"><strong>Zaldy Co’s lawyer says accusations against client must be specific, detailed</strong></a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>STILL NO LIVE STREAMS OF ICI PROCEEDINGS</strong></div><p>The ICI remains the executive branch&#x27;s primary investigate panel on the flood control controversy but remains a recommendatory body that <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/10/30/the-6-people-named-in-ici-report-and-their-alleged-links-to-flood-control-mess-1732">refers its findings to the Office of the Ombudsman</a>.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/12/independent-people-s-commission-bill-sponsored-in-senate-plenary-2128"><strong>Bill creating Independent People’s Commission sponsored in Senate plenary<br/></strong></a></div><p>The Commission on Audit on Saturday said<a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/29/coa-files-4-fraud-audit-reports-over-p297-m-worth-of-bulacan-flood-control-projects-1245"> it filed four fraud audit reports</a> with the ICI over P297 million worth of anomalous flood control projects in Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office — said to be the epicenter of corruption in flood control.</p><p>The ICI will go through the reports and forward these to the Ombudsman.</p><p>It has also forwarded its documents on Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, who resigned as speaker because of the flood control scandal, &quot;<a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/24/ici-releases-copy-of-nov-21-referral-asks-ombudsman-to-further-investigate-romualdez-1243">without any finding or conclusion of guilt or liability</a>.&quot;</p><p>It said the Office of the Ombudsman would be better equipped to investigate the former high-ranking official, who is also President Marcos Jr.&#x27;s cousin. </p><p>It has released guidelines on live-streaming its proceedings and has said it is ready to do so.</p><p>Lawmakers who have appeared before it, including Quezon City congressmen Juan Carlos &quot;Arjo&quot; Atayde of the 1st District and Patrick Michael Vargas of the 5th District, have have so far requested closed-door sessions, <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/28/ici-defends-decision-to-grant-executive-session-requests-by-resource-persons-0040">which the ICI also allows</a>.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>ASSETS FROZEN, CARS AND MONEY TURNED OVER</strong></div><p>Meanwhile, the Anti-Money Laundering Council has been <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/11/26/amlc-secures-additional-freeze-orders-for-assets-of-officials-linked-to-flood-control-scandal-1034">securing freeze orders from the Court of Appeals</a> covering 3,566 bank accounts, 198 insurance policies, 247 motor vehicles, 178 real properties, and 16 e-wallet accounts linked to people implicated in the scandal.</p><p>Among the assets frozen — they cannot be sold or passed on to others — are former congressman Co&#x27;s aircraft, which the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines is coordinating with counterparts in Malaysia and Singapore to secure.</p><p>The Bureau of Immigration has also implemented <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/10/8/ici-seeks-ilbo-vs-escudero-romualdez-other-officials-tagged-in-flood-control-mess-1243">Immigration Lookout Bulletin Orders</a> on several lawmakers, officials and contractors.</p><p>The orders do not authorize the BI to prevent subjects from leaving the country but does mandate the bureau to note their comings and goings and to subject them to secondary inspection to check for warrants against them.</p><p>Former DPWH officials like dismissed district engineer Henry Alcantara have also been turning over assets as &quot;restitution&quot; and as a show of good faith for potential admission as state witnesses.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/28/ex-dpwh-engineer-henry-alcantara-turns-over-p110-million-to-gov-t-1415"><strong>Ex-DPWH engineer Henry Alcantara turns over P110 million to gov’t<br/></strong></a></div><p>Alcantara this week turned over P110 million to the Department of Justice, which Acting Justice Secretary Frederrick Vida said is the first tranche of P300 million the sacked official has committed to return to government.</p><p>Former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo has also promised to return P7 million from a frozen bank account.</p><p>Alcantara&#x27;s former subordinate Brice Hernandez earlier turned over luxury vehicles to the ICI &quot;as a sign of good faith and his willingness to further cooperate.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/28/marcos-seeks-coordination-with-singapore-malaysia-over-hidden-zaldy-co-helicopters-1528"><strong>Marcos seeks coordination with Singapore, Malaysia over ‘hidden’ Zaldy Co helicopters</strong></a></div><p>&quot;This government intends to bring back every peso, every asset, every person responsible and return it to the Filipino people,&quot; Marcos Jr. said Friday as he called on the subjects of arrest warrants to come home and face their cases.</p><p>Twin protests at the People Power Monument in Quezon City and in Luneta Park in Manila on Sunday featured the by now familiar chant of &quot;Ikulong na &#x27;yan, mga kurakot (Jail the corrupt)!&quot; with speakers saying cases against &quot;small-time&quot; officials are not enough.</p><p>Activists at the Baha sa Luneta 2.0 rally are also calling for the resignations of both Marcos Jr. and of Vice President Sara Duterte for separate corruption issues that organizers said make them personifications of a system that needs to be changed.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/22/preps-for-luneta-rally-vs-corruption-include-transition-if-marcos-duterte-quit-1558"><strong>Preps for Luneta rally vs corruption include ‘transition’ if Marcos, Duterte quit</strong></a></div>

<p>Two months since tens of thousands gathered at the People Power Monument and Luneta Park to demand the imprisonment of those linked to corruption in flood control projects, nine of 16 charged over an anomalous project in Oriental Mindoro are in government custody.</p>

Two months since tens of thousands gathered at the People Power Monument and Luneta Park to demand the imprisonment of those linked to corruption in flood control projects, nine of 16 charged over an anomalous project in Oriental Mindoro are in government custody.

What has happened since the September 21 People Power Monument and Luneta rallies?

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What has happened since the September 21 People Power Monument and Luneta rallies?

Jonathan de Santos,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 30, 2025 11:42 AM PHT

Read More:

Flood control projects

Trillion Peso March

Baha sa Luneta

Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Zaldy Co

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