Kathmandu. Members of Philippine civil society groups on Thursday filed an impeachment complaint against President Ferdinand Marcos, accusing him of systematically misusing billions of taxpayer dollars through fake flood control projects.
Anger has been mounting for months over the alleged ‘ghost infrastructure projects’ in the archipelagic nation of 111 million people. Serious questions arose about these projects after entire cities were submerged by powerful typhoons last year.
The complaint, filed with the support of the Makabayan Bloc, a coalition of leftist political parties, also accuses President Marcos of breaching the public’s trust by packaging the national budget in the name of projects and redirecting funds towards his allies.
According to the complainants, the complaint was registered at the office of the Secretary General of the House of Representatives in accordance with House rules, although the official himself was not present. The summary of the complaint states that President Marcos institutionalized the misuse of over five hundred forty-five billion six hundred million pesos (about nine billion two hundred million US dollars) in flood control funds, benefiting his favored allies and contractors, and that public funds were used for private political purposes for the 2025 midterm elections.
The complaint also includes allegations that the President directly solicited bribes from contracts. However, this allegation is reportedly based on unverified claims made by a former legislator who left the country during the investigation.
“The President’s involvement in a massive scheme of corruption necessitates impeachment to hold him accountable. The public has been repeatedly and systematically robbed,” the summary of the complaint stated.
President Marcos, however, has maintained that he himself brought up the issue of ghost projects and played a role in advancing the investigation, which he claims has implicated construction company owners, government officials, and legislators. But one of the complainants, Liza Maza, stated that these steps are merely attempts to shift blame, saying, “We believe this investigation is just a cover-up, because he is actually the principal in this corruption.”
This is the second complaint filed against Marcos this week, citing events related to the arrest and referral to the International Criminal Court of former President Rodrigo Duterte last year. Under the Philippine Constitution, any citizen can file an impeachment complaint if it has the support of at least one member of the Congress’s more than 300 members.
Professor Dennis Coronacion, Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Santo Tomas, stated that the complaint is unlikely to progress far in a Congress filled with the President’s allies. According to him, the complaint has a low chance of receiving approval from the House Committee on Justice.
Previously, three complaints were filed against Vice President Sara Duterte in 2024. Although the House of Representatives impeached based on those complaints, the trial in the Senate failed, and the case was sent back. Later, the Supreme Court dismissed that case, ruling that it violated the constitutional provision against more than one impeachment proceeding within a year.
