STUDENTS, professors, and non-teaching personnel of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City converged at the school’s Palma Hall on Friday for a campus-wide Black Friday protest, denouncing corruption in the bureaucracy, construction delays, and sweeping budget cuts in the General Appropriations Act.
Protest actions also erupted in multiple parts of the country, including a rally staged by a small group of supporters of former President Rodrigo Duterte held in a shopping mall compound in Quezon City.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) reported however, that no untoward incident occurred during the rallies.
UP incurred a ₱2.08-billion reduction in its 2025 budget—the largest in two decades. For 2026, the Department of Budget and Management has proposed a ₱25.82-billion allocation for UP, just about half of the funding the institution had sought.
In separate statements, the UP Office of the Student Regent (OSR), the All UP Academic Employees’ Union (AUPAEU) Diliman, and the UP Diliman University Student Council (USC) called on the UP community to mobilize against what they described as “chronic corruption, neglect of education, and misuse of public funds.”
The OSR criticized the approval of a ₱27.28-billion budget for the Office of the President, contrasting it with what they said was the government’s continued disregard for the needs of students and state universities.
The UP administration expressed its full support to the scheduled protest actions of its various student organizations.
In a statement released late Thursday, UP president Angelo Jimenez said “the University views with gravest concern the revelation of deep-seated and massive corruption plaguing the flood control projects in our country. We cannot stay neutral.”
“We support and encourage the expression of general outrage of our citizens, in accordance with the constitutionally guaranteed rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression,” he added.
Expecting a huge number of supporters, the said group only had 15 individuals in attendance and failed to stage a rally at EDSA Shrine.
Instead, the rally was held in a UV Express terminal within the mall premises.
The group urged the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to withdraw its support for the government, .
PNP spokesman Brig. Gen.. Randulf Tuaño said the protest actions were generally peaceful even as the police enforced maximum tolerance.
In Bulacan, students and youth leaders protested in front of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) regional office in Barangay Tikay, Malolos, Bulacan — the same office where alleged bundles of cash were shown during a hearing at the House of Representatives.
Policemen lined up in front of the youth protesters at the gates of the Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office.
Meanwhile, student-protesters from Akbayan Youth BulSU and Katipunan Student Movement (KASAMA) BulSU called for a deeper probe into anomalous flood control projects.
In Bacolod, various civil society organizations and militant groups staged protests actions in the city demanding transparency and accountability of government officials over alleged anomalous flood control projects.
Partido Lakas Manggagawa and Sanlakas held protest actions in the city’s public plaza calling for an end to the corrupt system and the prosecution of corrupt officials from top to bottom.
Jun Ano, the group’s spokesman said that the flood control projects corruption scandals are just manifestation of a deeper problem of a rotten system ruled by politicians making government as extension of their private business.
On the other hand, the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) picketed the offices of DPWH District Engg Office and Bacolod City Engg Office, delivering condemnation stations and banging their gates with steel bars and stones.
This is just the start of our series of protests until these corrupt officials are investigated and brought to trial, said Bayan spokesman Noli Rosales.
For years, our poor basic sectors are paying the price of their organized corruption. This should be ended, he stressed.
The Council of Concerned Citizens, a broad multi sectoral and ecumenical alliance against corruption vowed to begin next week their independent investigation on questionable flood control projects , accompanied by various forms of protest actions.
