Thousands of Filipinos staged a rally in Manila's Luneta Park today to protest against the mishandling of the state's Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). The fund was supposed to be used by politicians for development projects such as building infrastructure and medical missions. An estimated PHP10 billion, or USD230 million, were said to be allowed by politicians to channel the funds to their own pockets through non-existent projects spearheaded by a businesswoman.
Angry calls about the abolition of PDAF, or "pork barrel", were echoed more in social media such as Facebook and Twitter when a series of investigative articles from the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the alleged involvement of politicians in the pork barrel scandal. The sentiments had eventually led to talks on setting up a rally on August 26.
Estimates about the number of people who had attended the rally vary. The organizers said that around 400,000 attended the rally. Police estimated a conservative 100,000.
The Philippines are known as avid social media users. To date, the Filipinos accounted for the most number of Facebook users at 30 million and with 92.2 penetration rate. Facebook closed USD40.54 in share price in Friday, a first since its IPO.
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