LAYA, SELDA slam Marcos Jr.’s “rank hypocrisy”: Jail the corrupt, free all political prisoners

[KARAPATAN Public Information]

PRESS RELEASE
27 July 2026

Reference: Amanda Echanis, LAYA spokesperson

LAYA secretariat, through KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580

LAYA, SELDA slam Marcos Jr.’s “rank hypocrisy”: Jail the corrupt, free all political prisoners

The LAYA Campaign to Free All Political Prisoners and Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) assailed the Marcos Jr. regime for its “rank hypocrisy” amid its failure to make good on its claims of stamping out corruption one year after Ferdinand Marcos Jr. jumpstarted his so-called anti-corruption crusade. Instead, his focus has been on suppressing dissent.

 
Said LAYA spokesperson Amanda Echanis, “With the exception of some government contractors and officials in the middle echelons, there are no ‘big-time’ bureaucrat capitalists behind bars. Worse,” she added, “two persons within Marcos Jr.'s inner circle who have been linked to the flood control anomaly were only temporarily removed from their posts and are now back in government. They have never seen the inside of a jail cell.”
 
The series of exposés now point to no less than Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as the author of the anomalous national budget that provides for “allocables,” budget insertions and bigger allotments for Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF) that have made large-scale bureaucratic corruption possible.
 
SELDA spokesperson Bonifacio Ilagan said it is an outrage that those who have been demanding accountability all the way to the top are the ones being persecuted. The regime has filed charges against several individuals who led or joined the huge anti-corruption protests on September 21 and November 30, 2026. In addition, he added, the Marcos Jr. regime has been busy illegally arresting and detaining at least 165 activists, government critics and ordinary citizens. These 165 individuals jailed since Marcos Jr. came to power form part of at least 560 political prisoners being held in various detention facilities nationwide.
 
Echanis decried the continuing detention of political prisoners, saying this exposes the government's use of fabricated criminal charges and other forms of political persecution against activists, human rights defenders, community organizers and other critics, while those responsible for large-scale corruption continue to evade accountability.
 
“Anti-corruption protesters are being  persecuted while the top bureaucrat capitalists remain free, including Marcos Jr. himself,” fumed Ilagan.
 
“Contrary to his pronouncements, Marcos Jr. is loath to go full throttle in the anti-corruption campaign because the evidence is leading right to the doorsteps of Malacañang,” said Echanis. “For the same reasons, Marcos Jr. even deliberately thwarted early attempts to impeach Vice Pres. Sara Duterte is accountable for the misuse of hundreds of millions of her CIF.”
 
“Instead of the corrupt, jails are being cramped with those who demand change from this rotten system,” said Ilagan.
 
“No one should be deemed criminal for speaking out against the massive plunder that the likes of the Marcoses and Dutertes are accountable for,” stressed Ilagan. “No activist or dissenter should be jailed for acting on his political beliefs. As we mark the first anniversary of Marcos Jr.’s bogus anti-corruption crusade, we march to renew our call to Jail the corrupt and Free all political prisoners.”

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