What’s Behind the Flood Corruption Scandal in the Philippines?

Allegations of widespread government corruption in flood infrastructure projects worth billions of dollars ignited mass protests across the Philippines on Sept. 21, intensifying pressure on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to implement sweeping reforms to root out a problem that has long plagued the Southeast Asian nation.

The scandal has sparked outrage across the Philippines, a country highly vulnerable to deadly flooding, particularly after it emerged that much of the government-funded infrastructure was defective, or, in some cases, not even built.