Philippine authorities Monday detained seven suspects and several more were being sought in a major corruption scandal involving flood control projects.

Massive corruption has been blamed for substandard or non-existent flood control projects in the poverty-stricken Southeast Asian country long prone to deadly floods and extreme weather.

Two Philippine presidents, including current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s late father, were overthrown in peaceful public revolts due to alleged plunder and misrule.

The initial batch of more than a dozen suspects, including Zaldy Co, a former member of the House of Representatives, and government public works engineers, were indicted by the Sandiganbayan, a special anti-corruption court, in the first of what is expected to be dozens of criminal graft and corruption lawsuits that Marcos promised would lock up implicated senators, House members and wealthy construction company owners by Christmas.

The first corruption case involved irregularities in flood control projects in Oriental Mindoro province, including a river dike worth 289 million pesos ($4.8 million), that were undertaken by Sunwest Corp., a construction firm that officials say is owned by Co’s family.

Marcos said one suspect was arrested and six others surrendered over the weekend to police.

The arrested suspect was found in a house in suburban Quezon city in the capital region where an unspecified number of people who were trying to help hide the suspect were also arrested, he said.

“My advice to the remaining suspects is for all of you to surrender, don’t wait to be pursued,” Marcos said in an early Monday post on his Facebook account. “This will continue, we will not stop.”

AP video by Joeal Calupitan