MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Catholic leaders, after helping mount a massive protest three weeks ago, are now evoking the power of symbols in the fight against corruption.

The Philippines is now facing its biggest corruption scandal in over a decade, with public officials and private contractors accused of stealing billions of pesos in flood control projects. This has fueled rage in the Philippines, a tropical country that faces around 20 storms a year and is ravaged by deadly floods.

Leading the charge against corruption is the Catholic Church, which has played a significant role in Philippine politics over the past five centuries.

To symbolize the current fight against corruption, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, urged Filipino Catholics “to wear white clothes every Sunday of October and November.”

He also encouraged them “to display white ribbons in homes, churches, and public places — as a sign of our desire for transparency, accountability, and good governance, and as a humble prayer that our nation may be washed clean and renewed in God’s mercy, and spared of further calamities.”

“Let our white garments be a symbol of the purity we seek for our land and our hearts. May this season of prayer and repentance lead us to hope, healing, and the restoration of our common life in truth and justice,” said David, 66, in a circular dated Oct. 11.

“Let us beg the Lord to renew our nation, and make us instruments of justice and peace,” he said.

The CBCP, in relation to this flood control scandal, earlier declared a National Day of Prayer and Repentance on Oct. 7.

A group of Catholic bishops and priests had also helped organize the Trillion Peso March against corruption on Sept. 21, which drew tens of thousands of protesters and which David himself attended.

In an Oct. 7 open letter to people in government, David rejected a “whitewash” in ongoing investigations into the flood control mess. He also cautioned the Senate against changing its leadership now, as it investigates the corruption scandal, because this “would only heighten public suspicion of a cover-up.”

“The Filipino people are watching closely,” David warned.

“We strongly oppose any attempt to preempt or derail the investigation through backroom deals, leadership takeovers, or selective justice. A nation cannot heal when its moral arteries are clogged by corruption and self-interest,” he added.

He described the current scandal as “a defining moment for public accountability.”

“Only through truth can our nation begin to rebuild trust and ensure that flood control no longer becomes another flood of corruption,” said David.

The Catholic Church has been a major political player in the Philippines since the 16th century, when the country became a Spanish colony. Even after the late 19th century, when the Philippines declared independence from Spain, the Catholic Church continued shaping politics in Asia’s biggest Catholic-majority country.

In 1986, a bloodless uprising supported by Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin — called the People Power Revolution — ousted the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos and installed a slain opposition leader’s widow, Corazon Aquino, as the country’s first woman president. The revolution ended 14 years of dictatorship marked by plunder and human rights abuses.

In 2001, a similar Church-backed uprising led by Cardinal Sin and Mrs. Aquino led to the ouster of President Joseph Estrada, an actor-turned-politician, over alleged corruption.

The presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, a populist leader known as “the Trump of the East,” witnessed another wave of Church-led opposition, led by the likes of Cardinal David. To the dismay of church leaders, however, Duterte remained popular until he was succeeded by Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the dictator that the Church helped depose.

The 80-year-old Duterte, who is accused of crimes against humanity, is now detained at the International Criminal Court. Church leaders were also among those who called for his prosecution.