Scores hurt, 3 seriously, as police patrol vehicle runs over anti-US protesters' line

From InterAksyon (Oct 19): Scores hurt, 3 seriously, as police patrol vehicle runs over anti-US protesters' line



A Police vehicle rammed their mobile patrol through the ranks of the protesters.(Michael de Guzman/Philstar/InterAksyon.com)

A newly-formed alliance of national minorities said more than 50 people were hurt, including three seriously, after being rammed by a patrol car, as police dispersed their protest at the US embassy Wednesday. Among the injured was Kabataan party-list Rep. Sarah Elago. Police are probing the matter.

Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, said 29 protesters, including indigenous people, a doctor, nurse and health volunteer, and Wences Balanquit of the alternative media outfit Southern Tagalog Exposure, had been arrested and taken to the headquarters of the Manila Police District.

The embassy incident followed the dispersal of a protest staged by SANDUGO in front of Camp Aguinaldo military headquarters in Quezon City Tuesday when they were bombarded with water cannon. The protest was to demand an end to the counterinsurgency campaign Oplan Bayanihan and the pullout of troops and militias from indigenous people’s communities.



The protesters in front of the US embassy before they were dispersed. (photo by Obet de Castro)

SANDUGO said the protesters were ending their program in front of the US embassy, where they voiced calls for American troops to leave the country and support for President Rodrigo Duterte’s plans to pursue an independent foreign policy, when Superintendent Marcelino Pedroso of the MPD allegedly ordered the dispersal.

“Immediately, the police released tear gas and rammed their mobile patrol vehicle through the ranks of the protesters. Police armed with truncheons also chased after the protesters from Roxas Boulevard to Kalaw Street,” the alliance said in a statement.

The Inquirer.net posted a video of that police vehicle ramming through the phalanx of ralliers. Watch the Inquirer video here.

Police to investigate, explains side

Police said they would investigate, and at the same time expressed regret over the injuries. At the same time, other officers told media the ralliers were trying to flip their patrol car over, an act that would have endangered the driver  and his passengers.
In the video, one can hear the voice of a man, presumably a rally leader, repeatedly exhorting protesters to discipline their ranks (Mga kasama, ayusin natin ang ating mga hanay!")

Bayan's Reyes said there was "absolutely no justification" for the dispersal as "the groups were preparing to leave."

SANDUGO identified three of those injured by the patrol vehicle as SANDUGO lead convenor Piya Macliing Malayao, Quenilyn Gromeo of Anakbayan-PUP, and Baling Katubigan, a 61-year old lumad woman from Caraga.

Among the injured, it turned out, was Kabataan Partylist Rep. Sarah Elago.

"We express our utmost condemnation of what we can consider as a brutal police attack against the people. The national minorities, under the banner of SANDUGO, a newly-established alliance of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for self-determination, were rallying at the US Embassy to underline their plight caused by US domination in the military, political, and economic affairs of our country," said a statement from Kabataan.

The protesters "were calling for the immediate abrogation of lopsided treaties with the US, including the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, in which "agreed locations" for foreign bases directly trespass and endanger their ancestral lands. They were rallying against the US-instigated Oplan Bayanihan, which has wrought strife, conflict, and deadly militarization in their communities. They were rallying against the plunder of our natural resources by the imperialist Washington and its big foreign companies," according to Kabataan.

Photos posted on social media by rally participants showed protesters sprawled on the ground after being hit by the police vehicle. One photo showed a protester's foot pinned beneath a tire of the vehicle.

After the dispersal, the protesters regrouped and marched to MPD heaadquarters where they are as of this posting to demand the release of their arrested companions.

The national minorities, from the northern Luzon highlands to the lumad and Moro tribes of Mindanao, are in Manila for the “Lakbayan ng Pambansang Minorya para sa Sariling Pagpapasya at Makatarungang Kapayapaan.”



A Dumagat leader at the US embassy protest. (photo by Obet de Castro)

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/133487/scores-hurt-3-seriously-as-police-patrol-vehicle-runs-over-anti-us-protesters-line