4 December 2025MANILA — In a country where typhoons kill hundreds every year, the revelation that more than $2bn (£1.6bn) earmarked for flood defences has allegedly vanished into the pockets of politicians and their business allies has triggered national fury.President Ferdinand Marcos Jr promised on Monday that “by Christmas, you will see more orange jumpsuits” — a reference to prison uniforms. 
With 21 days left, the question on every Filipino tongue is whether the president’s own family and closest allies will be among them.The scale of the scandalA confidential report by the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI), seen by the BBC, names 37 sitting or former members of Congress — 12 senators and 25 representatives — who are now facing charges of plunder, graft and malversation of public funds. The total amount under investigation has risen to 118.5 billion pesos ($2.08bn), with prosecutors alleging that at least 30% of every flood-control contract was routinely kicked back to sponsoring lawmakers.The mechanics were brutally simple. Lawmakers inserted projects into the national budget through their notorious “pork-barrel” allocations. Favoured contractors — often family-owned companies — submitted inflated bids, performed little or no work, then transferred the “savings” back to politicians through cash, luxury vehicles, overseas properties and, in some cases, drugs and sex parties, according to testimony given to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).The names that matterAt the very top of the list sits House Speaker Martin Romualdez, President Marcos’s cousin and the single most powerful figure in the lower chamber until his resignation last week. Investigators allege Mr Romualdez received at least 160 million pesos in kickbacks from the Sunwest Construction group, owned by former congressman Elizaldy Co — who has fled to the United States and is now subject to an Interpol red notice.Former Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero, another political heavyweight, is accused of taking a 20% cut on contracts worth 800 million pesos. Sworn statements from former Public Works under-secretaries describe envelopes of cash changing hands in the Senate car park.Luxury hidden in plain sightThe BBC has verified asset-freeze orders covering:Three Forbes Park mansions registered to drivers and security aides
Two Bombardier private jets parked at a private hangar in Davao
A fleet of 44 supercars, including a Pagani Huayra Roadster titled to a 20-year-old “legislative intern”
In one particularly brazen case, prosecutors found 89 million pesos in cash stuffed into Louis Vuitton bags in a Quezon City safe house where six suspects were arrested on Saturday.Beyond money: drugs and sexThe investigation has rapidly expanded into darker territory. Last Thursday, NBI agents raided a private club above Greenbelt 5 in Makati and allegedly discovered congressional staffers hosting a party with 800g of crystal methamphetamine and several underage models. Immigration records show 19 lawmakers’ “personal assistants” — all women aged 18–24 — made 147 luxury trips abroad in the past three years, paid for entirely in cash.The president’s dilemmaMr Marcos has staked his reputation on cleaning up the mess. Yet the presence of his cousin at the heart of the scandal has fuelled accusations of selective justice. Opposition figures, including Vice-President Sara Duterte, have accused the administration of weaponising the probe against political rivals while shielding allies.On Tuesday night, the lower house voted to suspend all 25 named representatives and agreed — for the first time in Philippine history — to allow the World Bank and UNDP to pre-audit every flood-control project in the 2026 budget.The people speakIn the coastal barangay of Malabon, where floodwater still laps at doorsteps months after the last typhoon, 68-year-old fisherman Roberto Cruz told the BBC: “They stole the walls that were meant to protect my grandchildren. If the president really wants justice, he must start with his own blood.”As Manila counts down to Mr Marcos’s self-imposed Christmas deadline, the city braces for what many fear could be the largest street protests since the 1986 People Power revolution.For a nation that measures its year by the storms that bear down on it, the greatest danger now may not come from the sky, but from the rage building on the ground.