25 September 2025 | 08:40 CAT
2-minute read

Philippine Protests, Border Clashes, and the Future of the Global South

In this week’s Asia Pacific Report on Radio Islam International, veteran campaigner and academic Walden Bello mapped recent upheavals across Southeast Asia onto a broader struggle over governance, global inequality and the direction of international order.

As tens of thousands of Filipinos mobilised in massive anti-corruption protests dubbed the “Trillion Peso March,” Bello contends the roots of the unrest lie not only in maladministration but in deeper structural dynamics. He also weighed escalating tensions on the Cambodia–Thailand border, and reflected on the 30-year trajectory of his organisation, Focus on the Global South, in shaping alternative visions amid the challenges of deglobalisation.

The Philippines has been convulsed by outrage over alleged graft in flood control and infrastructure projects, with demonstrators accusing government officials and contractors of embezzling funds and executing substandard work. Hundreds of demonstrators attempted to push toward Malacañang Palace, only to be blocked by police, triggering clashes in which more than 200 people have reportedly been arrested.

Meanwhile, a Senate inquiry in Bulacan province heard testimony that engineers had deliberately designed projects to allow for kickbacks of 20 percent or more of the budget.

Bello rejects simplified narratives blaming protest violence on fringe groups, and instead pinpoints the security forces as responsible for excessive force. He points to the historical role of the Philippine National Police in suppressing dissent, particularly under the Duterte years, and frames current youth protest as a predictable eruption of frustration among marginalised generations.

“I put the violence squarely on the Philippine National Police,” Bello said.

He emphasised that today’s protests mirror patterns emerging elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific: from Nepal and Indonesia to Timor, younger generations are taking to the streets with vigour, often under state repression. He sees these as part of a regional wave of Gen Z resistance.

“These youths … their only way of making their cause felt is through these kinds of confrontations,” he said.

Shifting the lens to the Cambodia–Thailand frontier, Bello warned that ultranationalist currents are being stoked by elites seeking to exploit border tensions. The rural poor are often manipulated into serving political ends, he argued, and citizens’ movements should be vigilant about the co-option of identity politics.

“Citizens’ movements really criticise this kind of use of ultranationalism to promote political and elite interests.”

Bello warned that the coming battle is over which model of deglobalisation will dominate: one driven by unilateral protectionism and narrow trade barriers, or a more pluralistic, sovereign approach that allows nations to chart their own developmental paths. He cautioned against allowing the framework to be captured by reactionary forces.

For many in the Philippines, the protests are a litmus test of democracy’s resilience: can institutions be held accountable, and can leaders be compelled to respond? For analysts like Bello, the struggle is not merely national but civilisational: a contest over who controls the levers of global power in a time of inequality and geopolitical fracturing.

Listen to the Asia Pacific Report on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.