Thousands of Filipinos yesterday gathered in the capital here to express their anger over a ballooning scandal involving bogus flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

Rage over the so-called ghost infrastructure projects has been mounting in the country since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr put them centre stage in a July state of the nation address that followed weeks of deadly flooding.

On Monday, Marcos said he did not blame people for protesting "one bit" while calling for demonstrations to remain peaceful. The army has been placed on "red alert" as a precaution.

"There were times I personally waded through floods," Aly Villahermosa, a 23-year-old nursing student from Metro Manila said as an estimated crowd of 13,000 gathered yesterday morning in the capital's Luneta Park.

"If there's a budget for ghost projects, then why is there no budget for the health sector?" she said, calling the theft of public funds "truly shameful".

Teddy Casino, 56, chairman of left-wing alliance Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, said the group was demanding not only the return of stolen funds but prison time for those involved.

"Corruption requires people to go to the streets and express their outrage in the hope of pressuring government to actually do their jobs," he said.

Even bigger crowds were expected to gather later in the day to march down the thoroughfare known as EDSA, site of the People Power Movement protests that helped oust Marcos's dictator father from power in 1986.

The flood control scandal has already sparked leadership changes in both houses of Congress, with House speaker Martin Romualdez, a cousin of Marcos, tendering his resignation earlier this week as an investigation got underway.

Earlier this month, the owners of a construction firm accused nearly 30 House members and Public Works and Highways Department officials of taking cash payments.

The Finance Department has estimated that the Philippine economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) from 2023 to 2025 due to corruption in flood control projects. Greenpeace has suggested the number is actually closer to US$18 billion. 

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

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