TWO ministers resigned from Philippine President Ferdinand Marco Jr’s cabinet on Tuesday as a corruption scandal engulfed the country and reached the gates of the presidential palace.

The two ministers, executive secretary Lucas Bersamin and department of budget and management secretary Amenah Pangandaman, were both implicated in an ongoing investigation into “ghost” infrastructure and billions of dollars of missing government funds.

Presidential palace press officer Claire Castro said the pair resigned “after their departments were mentioned in allegations related to the flood control anomaly” and “in recognition of the responsibility to allow the administration to address the matter appropriately.”

The two are the highest ranking members of the government to be hit directly by the corruption scandal that broke in July, with President Marcos himself managing to stay above the fray.

But earlier this week, lawmaker Zaldy Co, alleged without evidence that when he headed an appropriations committee, the president directed him to add $1.7 billion (£1.3bn) to the budget for what he described as “dubious public works.”

Mr Co was charged this week with his alleged role in the corruption scandal.

The scandal broke earlier this year when President Marcos revealed that billions of public funds for anti-flooding infrastructure had been siphoned off by private contractors who built substandard infrastructure — or none at all.