BBM is the biggest nepo baby
Malaya Movement USA joins millions of Filipinos in the Philippines and around the world who are disgusted by the rampant theft of billions of pesos of the people’s money by wealthy politicians and top contractors through fraudulent “ghost” flood control projects in the Philippines. The lavish lifestyles of corrupt public officials in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the heads of construction companies they’ve colluded with, are paid for in dozens to hundreds of Filipino lives each year. But the biggest and most guilty politician in the Philippines is the one pretending to lead this publicity crusade against corruption - President Bongbong Marcos Jr. (BBM) himself.
It is President Marcos who prepares the Philippine government's proposed annual budget and submits it to Congress. Since 2023, he has allocated nearly 1 trillion pesos (more than $17 billion) to these fraudulent flood control projects as part of his self-aggrandizing BBM “Build Better More” infrastructure program. In his 2024 State of the Nation Address (SONA), Marcos bragged about having implemented 5,500 flood control projects and was quickly put to shame when Super Typhoon Carina hit the country a few days later, leaving people across Metro Manila and Luzon submerged with floods that killed 48 people.
A year later in his 2025 SONA amid worsening floods from a series of typhoons, Marcos was forced to admit that these flood control projects were a huge source of corruption that needed to be investigated. He acted shocked and angry, desperately trying to deflect blame from himself as the chief executive most responsible for signing off on all these bloated infrastructure budgets. Marcos then embarked on a performative publicity campaign surrounded by cameras to inspect a few of these fraudulent projects claiming, “I’m very angry,” and launched a witch hunt to throw corrupt officials and contractors under the bus, hoping to ensure his own political survival.
Let’s be real. Bongbong is no stranger to corruption. He is the biggest “nepo baby” of all, since his entire upbringing and political career was built on the outrageous wealth generated from his family’s unprecedented grand theft of an estimated $5 billion to $13 billion in public funds since Martial Law. It was the Marcos Sr. fascist dictatorship that instituted and ingrained the sickening legacy of government corruption in the Philippines that persists to this day and exponentially multiplied the national debt during his 21 years in power.
We must remember that Bongbong has a long record of stealing billions of dollars in public funds and hiding them in secret overseas bank accounts. He has been convicted of tax evasion, and has a contempt case in the U.S. for refusing to pay $353.6 million in fines. Since assuming the presidency in 2022, Marcos Jr. has annually allotted himself the largest budget for confidential and intelligence funds at ₱4.5 billion ($78.8 million), which are exempt from audit and accountability.
We will not allow Marcos to get away with his sham anti-corruption rhetoric. It is only because of the masses of people taking their anger to the streets that Marcos’ own corrupt cabinet member DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan and several of his department officials have been forced to resign, Marcos’ cousin House Speaker Martin Romualdez has been implicated, Senate President Chiz Escudero has been forced to step down, and devious officials and their cronies such as the Bulacan Group of Contractors and the Discaya family are now being exposed.
The tentacles of this corruption scandal have even reached overseas to the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles, where the Labor Attaché of the Department Migrant Workers, Macy Monique Malangque, has been recalled to face investigation for her role as former president of a construction company that secured ₱2.195 billion worth of flood control projects from 2018 to 2024 in Bulacan. More corrupt politicians will surely be revealed since this corruption is endemic throughout the government. But Marcos is maneuvering the situation to personally gain control of the infrastructure budgets so that he can institute another form of presidential pork barrel and political patronage, where he will have the power to grant government jobs, contracts, or other benefits to lower level politicians in exchange for their political support or loyalty.
Corruption in the Philippines is not just a matter of a few bad apples, it’s a fundamental and systemic characteristic of the entire Philippine government, known as bureaucratic capitalism. Since Martial Law, it has become a standard operating procedure for government bureaucrats to use their public offices as milking cows to enrich themselves by getting kickbacks, padding infrastructure projects with overpriced budgets, and cutting costs through using poor quality building materials so that political dynasties and their cronies can fatten their pockets with the people’s money. As a result of this systemic robbery that enables the lavish decadence of the wealthiest 1% of Philippine society, millions of Filipinos continue to suffer in spiraling poverty with insufficient government services and widespread unemployment. Beyond holding a few individuals accountable, the entire corrupt system of bureaucratic capitalism must be abolished and replaced with a new form of government that is run for and by the people.
Join us for a National Week of Action starting on September 19 through September 27 to protest the widespread corruption and impunity under BBM’s regime and to demand justice and accountability for all victims of fascist state violence. Hold actions to commemorate the anniversary of the declaration of Marcos Sr.’s brutal Martial Law.
Join the flood of protesters who will take to the streets on September 21 in the Philippines, in the U.S. and all over the world.
Bahain ng protesta ang kurap at pasistang sistema!
Flood the corrupt and fascist system with protests!
