A resident makes coffee inside his submerged home in Frances, a village in the Philippines, on Dec. 6.
Photographer: Geric Cruz/BloombergInside the $2 Billion Scandal That Paralyzed the Philippines
Government funds meant to protect communities were allegedly stolen, leaving villages flooded and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. confronting a political and economic reckoning.
Senator Francis Pangilinan leaned into his microphone and fired off numbers in pesos: 50 million? 10 million? 100 million? “You withdrew this in cash?”
Across the hearing room sat Sally Santos, the proprietor of Syms Construction Trading and a central figure in the Philippines’ ballooning flood-control scandal. She didn’t flinch. 457 million pesos, she said. That’s $7.8 million.