At least 114 people have died and 127 remain missing in central Philippines after a typhoon caused destruction and widespread flooding, which local officials suggest could have been prevented if not for persistent graft in flood-control projects.
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Some 71 of the casualties were in the central province of Cebu, a province that was still recovering from a 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck two months ago and killed dozens. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has since declared a state of national calamity.
Typhoon Kalmaegi brought destruction to the region, making landfall on Tuesday as a Category 1-equivalent hurricane. It also brought in unusually heavy rains: in the 24 hours before it made landfall, Cebu received more than 7 in of rainfall—equivalent to about a month and a half’s worth of rain in November. Heavy rains have caused rivers to overflow, washing away entire communities, and have triggered landslides. Winds have toppled trees and power lines and have flattened homes.
But Kalmaegi also collapsed flood-control infrastructure in the province that was ostensibly meant to protect citizens in such disasters. It once again thrusts into the spotlight a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal related to substandard public works projects that have been a hot-button topic for Filipinos for months.
Civil defense officials have told local media that search-and-rescue operations are ongoing. But there’s fear that flood-related casualties and damages—as well as anger at the government over its seeming contribution to the toll—will only continue to rise as the Philippines, which is regularly battered by typhoons and is at the forefront of climate change’s extreme effects, is in the path of another supertyphoon later this week.
How corruption may have cost lives
Cebu Governor Pam Baricuatro described to local news channel ANC on Wednesday that the province experienced “by far the worst flash flood caused by a typhoon” in its history, affecting over 35 municipalities. Baricuatro says the rapid rise of water complicated evacuation efforts. “People had no time to flee; all they could do was head up to their roofs.”
But Baricuatro expressed frustration about how there were supposed flood-control projects that could have helped mitigate the severity of the disaster: “₱26 billion ($440 million) of flood control funds for Cebu yet we are flooded to the max,” Baricuatro posted on Facebook.
The provincial governor’s comments came amid monthslong frustration over controversial flood-control projects across the country. In the middle of 2025, Philippine government-led investigations found that many of the projects since Marcos took office in 2022 were either non-existent, left unfinished, or completed substandardly, while billions of dollars for these projects were, in the eyes of critics, stolen from the treasury via kickbacks or overpriced materials.
Since then, Filipinos called on the government to hold those involved in those flood-control projects accountable and staged a mass protest on Sept. 21.
Read More: Filipinos Call for ‘Radical Change’ in Mass Protests Over Flood Money Corruption
Baricuatro, who took office in June, told ANC that her office has found “ghost projects” and “substandard projects” in their inspection of flood-control measures throughout the province, mirroring the situation in northern parts of the country.
President Marcos, who is expected to visit Cebu on Friday to inspect the extent of the damage, has ordered an investigation into flood-control projects in the province. According to a presidential spokesperson, records from the Department of Public Works and Highways show that 343 flood control projects were built in the province from 2016 to 2022, and 168 projects were constructed from 2023 to 2025.
An upcoming protest against a slow government
The Sept. 21 protest coalesced members of Philippine civil society, demanding accountability from the government. Since then, the government has tried to address the corruption problem. It created an independent commission to look into anomalies around flood-control projects, and that commission in late October recommended filing criminal and administrative charges against several high-ranking officials, including a former public works undersecretary, two sitting Senators, and former House of Representatives members. The commission also caved to pressure from civil society groups, pushing for transparency, to livestream hearings related to the flood-control projects.
But public frustration has continued to mount, particularly as no one has been jailed.
“The public really needs to see someone be put in jail,” Jean Franco, a professor of political science at the University of the Philippines, tells TIME. “I think that’s something that will kind of put initial closure on this … I think the public wants not only the contractors or the [public works] officials but also politicians, [to face consequences] because that will really show the mettle and the sincerity of this Administration.”
Franco added that the latest flooding in Cebu will only incite more rage from the public, given the extent of the damage and casualties.
Vince Dizon, the new Secretary of Public Works and Highways appointed in a bid to end corruption in those projects, promised to jail someone by Christmastime. But civil society groups are growing impatient with the speed of its resolution. Father Wilmer Tria, speaking to local news station ANC last month, said that the investigating commission on infrastructure-related corruption is simply a “plunderer’s laundromat,” in which “soiled” politicians are “dumped in the washing machine, spun for a bit, and after that, they’ll become clean again.”
Tria is the national secretariat of the Trillion Peso March movement, which plans to stage another nationwide protest on Nov. 30 to decry what he says is the slow resolution of the corruption case. Marcos urged the protest to be peaceful, as the previous Sept. 21 protests saw pockets of violence.
“People distrust government in a way that they’re not very hopeful that someone will really be put to jail. They see that there are collusions. There are people high up there who’re trying to hide or collude with each other so that they are not held accountable. That’s why people have to find another way to hold them accountable,” Franco adds.
And the next protest likely won’t be the last. Cleve Arguelles, a political scientist based in Manila, says the persistent and undiscriminating effect of typhoons may sustain the rage-fueled movement. He also pointed out that a once-lively protest culture dampened under the authoritarian rule of former strongman leader Rodrigo Duterte, who was in office from 2016 to 2022, but the flood-control corruption scandal gave a jolt for its revival.
“There is that understanding that we have to outlast those who are involved, because the practice in the Philippines, especially if it involves big politicians, big dynastic politicians, is that they just try to wait and try to outlast public indignation,” Arguelles said.
And Marcos, the current President and son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., may not be able to let this movement fizzle. If the protesters’ demands remain inadequately addressed, Arguelles says he believes the popular unrest could escalate to the point of ousting top officials, similar to other protest movements across Asia in recent years, such as in Nepal and Bangladesh, or even historical protest movements in the Philippines, like in the late 1980s when Marcos Sr. was ousted or 2001, when President Joseph Estrada was removed.
“The attempt to do another protest—and I know that it will not stop on November 30,” says Arguelles, “is to sustain and to ensure that there is enough public attention for us to see through this entire case.”