Tens of thousands of Filipinos have gathered in Manila to express their displeasure over discovering that their flood control infrastructure exists primarily in the realm of imagination and corrupt officials' bank accounts. The three-day rally represents what happens when a typhoon-prone nation realizes its defense projects were either built from materials that would embarrass a house of cards or simply never existed at all, despite billions of pesos somehow evaporating in the process.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s allies find themselves in the awkward position of explaining how you spend massive amounts of money on flood defenses that turn out to be as real as unicorns. The protesters' description of the scandal as 'enormous evil' captures the particular brand of bureaucratic malevolence required to steal flood defense money from a country regularly hammered by natural disasters.