Philippines president backs protests over corruption scandal

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said Monday he did not blame people for taking part in street protests "one bit" as anger mounts over a corruption scandal involving phony flood control projects. The infrastructure scandal has prompted a series of protests across the capital Manila in recent weeks, including one involving about 3,000 students at the University of the Philippines campus. While most demonstrations so far have largely been small-scale, an annual protest tied to the 1972 declaration of martial law by Marcos's father is expected to draw large crowds on Sunday. The Southeast Asian nation's army has been placed on "red alert" as a precaution. At a Monday press briefing where he named a former Supreme Court justice head of...