THOUSANDS of demonstrators, including Roman Catholic clergy, protested in the Philippines today, calling for the swift prosecution of top legislators and officials implicated in a corruption scandal that has rocked the country.

Left-wing groups led a separate protest in Manila’s main park with a blunt demand for all implicated government officials to immediately resign and face prosecution.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has been scrambling to quell public outrage over the massive corruption blamed for substandard, defective or non-existent flood control projects across an archipelago long prone to deadly flooding and extreme weather in tropical Asia.

More than 17,000 police officers were deployed in metropolitan Manila to secure the separate protests. 

Some critics have even called on the military to withdraw support from the Marcos administration.

But a statement signed by at least 88 mostly retired generals said they “strongly condemn and reject any call for the armed forces of the Philippines to engage in unconstitutional acts or military adventurism.

“The unified voice of our retired and active leaders reaffirms that the armed forces of the Philippines remains a pillar of stability and a steadfast guardian of democracy,” the statement said.

Protesters demanded that members of Congress, officials and construction company owners behind thousands of anomalous flood control projects in recent years be imprisoned and ordered to return the government funds they stole. 

Since President Marcos first raised alarm over the flood control anomalies in his state of the nation address to Congress in July, at least seven public works officers have been jailed for illegal use of public funds and other charges in one flood control project anomaly alone.