President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Monday said police would not stop a nationwide protest planned for this Sunday, while vowing to investigate alleged massive corruption in state infrastructure projects.

Filipinos have been glued to their television sets in recent days as both houses of Congress probed graft allegations tied to state-funded flood control projects.

The news has coincided with the monsoon season, which has put many parts of the capital, Manila, and nearby suburbs under water. The deluge has embarrassed Marcos, who last year boasted about the completion of many flood-control projects.

University students and activists have taken to the streets in droves in recent days and vowed to stage a bigger, nationwide protest on September 21. That's raised concerns that public anger is mounting and could snowball into massive, destabilizing protests similar to those recently seen in Indonesia and Nepal.

That date marks the anniversary of the declaration of martial law by Marcos' late father and namesake, Ferdinand Marcos Sr, whose two-decade abusive regime was ended by a "people power" revolt in 1986.

The Marcos family name is synonymous with corruption to many Filipinos; the late dictator is believed to have plundered untold billions from state coffers and parked them overseas. Thousands of activists also went missing or were killed, in what many considered the darkest years in modern Philippine history.

Marcos Jr, also known as Bongbong, won the presidency overwhelmingly in 2022, and on several measures since has appeared to be on the right track. For one, he has been laser-focused on defense and sovereignty by pivoting back to the United States to defend the country's contested sea border vis-à-vis an expansionist China.

More controversially, he sent his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, to be tried in The Hague by the International Criminal Court for thousands of deaths associated with his widely criticized war on drugs campaign.

Still, the Marcos family has not adequately answered calls by activist groups to return the stolen wealth, which by some estimates may be as high as US$30 billion. Last week, the president announced the creation of an independent commission on corruption tasked to uncover wrongdoing and hold officials to account.

On Monday, Marcos said his administration would not pre-emptively block the protests despite concerns they could morph into major firestorms. Referring to the corruption allegations, Marcos said on Monday that an angry electorate would not be satiated "if we don't do anything about it."

"You have to remember I brought this up, and it is my interest that we find the solution to what has become a very egregious problem. And since this has all been exposed, well, it's actually known to many people, but it has now been exposed to the general public," Marcos said.