MANILA: Philippine protesters took to the streets on Wednesday on the 40th anniversary of the fall of dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr, aiming their anger at a corruption scandal under his son's current administration. At a pair of protests barely a kilometre apart, demonstrators braved a scorching Manila sun to demand accountability for bogus flood-control projects believed to have cost the storm-battered archipelago billions of taxpayer dollars.
At one intersection, protesters briefly clashed with shield-wielding police who eventually gave way, allowing the procession to pass. Marcos, who was first elected president in 1965, imposed martial law seven years later, silencing the legislature, killing critics and allegedly embezzling billions from state coffers. Four decades after he was ousted, protester Dee Van Nostrand, 72, called the country's ongoing battle against corruption "exhausting". She said she travelled 180 kilometres to march in Manila because "we deserve a better government, we deserve a better life". — AFP
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