Dozens hurt during anti-Trump rally

MANILA, Philippines — At least six police officers, several media practitioners and dozens of protesters were hurt after militant groups and elements of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) clashed in Manila yesterday morning. 

The encounter occurred after the demonstrators, who were protesting the arrival of US President Donald Trump in the country for the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, tried to force their way through the police barricade at the corner of Padre Faura street and Taft Avenue shortly before 11 a.m.

The police, supported by firemen with water cannons, stood their ground as the protesters attempted to breach the human wall, leading to the clash.

The protesters stormed the human barricade using sticks and stones, forcing the policemen to retaliate, hitting even media practitioners covering the confrontation.

At least four photographers were hurt and several others were hosed with water cannons before things settled down.

A police officer using a megaphone told the protesters that they will stop once the latter ceased throwing stones.

The protesters eventually settled down in front of the Supreme Court where they burned an effigy of Trump before dispersing and marching towards Liwasang Bonifacio shortly before 1 p.m.

NCRPO chief Director Oscar Albayalde said the protesters were violent.

He said they would still implement maximum tolerance “but the militants would never be allowed to get closer to the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City where most of the ASEAN events would be held.”

He said the protesters could hold their rallies in freedom parks but they will be barred from areas near the venues.

Manila Police District (MPD) spokesman Supt. Erwin Margarejo downplayed the “show of force” of the militant groups, saying their only purpose is to embarrass the country and show to the world that government is not in control. 

Leaders charged

Meanwhile, two prominent leaders of the group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan were charged yesterday after one of their supporters rammed a van into the police line and injured a policeman Sunday afternoon.

Chief Insp. Ronald Andres, MPD-criminal investigation and detection unit chief, said Renato Reyes, Teddy Casiño and Neil Legaspi were charged with breach of peace, assault upon a person in authority and disobedience and resistance.

Andres said the group, with Legaspi driving the van (NQN-437) and leading the way, attacked the police contingent at the corner of UN Ave. and Mabini street in Ermita around 3 p.m.

He said Legaspi rammed the van back and forth at the policemen even if he was asked to stop and eventually hit PO1 Paulino Agcamaran, from the Regional Public Safety Battalion in Camp Bagong Diwa.

Agcamaran was rushed to hospital while Legaspi was arrested. 

Almost 150 hurt in rally

Militants and police officers lamented the violent dispersal where 123 protesters were hurt, five of whom were rushed to the Philippine General Hospital due to severe injuries, according to records from the Health Alliance for Democracy (HAD) that served as medical team for the rally.

Around 20 police who blocked the protesters were also hurt, sustaining scratches and bruises, earlier reports said.

Three of the five protesters sustained head injuries while one fractured his left leg and another fainted due to hypertension.

The names of those injured were not released.

Casiño, who joined the protesters, claimed that no one would have gotten hurt if the police had allowed them to march towards the venue of the summit.

“The people do not want to be stopped. What happened was the assertion of the right to peaceful assembly and to air redress,” he said.

But Police Senior Insp. Marlon Lao, commander of a platoon, maintained that they blocked the protesters to prevent them from marching towards the summit venue.

“Our mandate is to protect the ASEAN Summit,” Lao said.

‘US mediation will worsen sea row’

At Clark Freeport in Pampanga, the  Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya (Pamalakaya) assailed yesterday the offer of Trump to act as mediator in the territorial conflict between China and other claimants.

“Trump would be an added problem rather than a solution,” Pamalakaya said in a statement yesterday.

Speaking in Vietnam on Sunday before heading to the Philippines to attend the ASEAN Summit, Trump said he was prepared to mediate in the South China Sea territorial dispute.

Pamalakaya said China “has been imposing its irrational claim over almost 90 percent of the South China Sea, including the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.”

“Letting (the) US,  a known rival (of China) to intervene in the sea dispute will only aggravate the tension. The US has been challenging and provoking China by conducting air and sea patrols in the disputed waters. There could be no sincere mediation from a warmonger,” Pamalakaya said.

The group said “the US doesn’t actually want to settle the territorial dispute peacefully; rather, (it wants) to exploit the conflict and advance its hegemonic agenda to control the natural reserves in the South China Sea,” the group said.

“We urge President Duterte to reject his American counterpart’s offer and pursue a diplomatic and peaceful resolution on the sea row with Beijing,” Pamalakaya chairman Fernando Hicap said in the statement.

‘No gains for citizens’

Filipinos have nothing to gain from the summit and the visit of Trump, militants said yesterday.

“The Filipino people have nothing to gain and everything to lose in this gathering of global economies and world superpowers. As expected, US, China, Japan, and Russia will only display their economic and political rivalry,” the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said in a statement yesterday.

It said “the three-way contest (of) US-China-Russia will only worsen the militarism and fascism in Southeast Asia.”

“Duterte, on the other hand, will do everything to please his foreign masters. He would sing and dance and wag his tongue if ordered by Trump,” said Danilo Ramos, chairman of KMP.

Ramos noted that “important issues like access to land and natural resources, employment, food security, delivery of social services, education, healthcare, protection of the environment and human rights, among others, are not on the agenda of the ASEAN Summit.”

“World leaders are turning a blind eye on the reality of Rohingya refugees in Myanmar and the Philippines’ anti-drug war that has killed thousands,” he said.

KMP secretary-general Antonio Flores said, “We will resist US and ASEAN’s further imposition on our local economy, agriculture, trade and politics. We refuse to be dragged into a web of war among superpowers. The US’s constant threat to North Korea and China’s unabashed trampling of our territorial integrity will cause further political tension in the region.”

“After all the ASEAN festivities and the Philippine government’s extravagant hosting, what will be left for us is more of the same – hunger, poverty, unemployment and the worst human rights situation,” Flores said.  

Farmers and peasant leaders from Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia under the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) are now in Manila to show solidarity with Filipino farmers who are opposing and protesting Trump’s visit in Asia and in the Philippines.

The foreign peasant-leaders are attending mass actions against the ASEAN and East Asia Summit (EAS), Ramos said.

In a statement, APC said “the EAS will be a staging ground for the economic and political rivalry of superpowers US, China and Russia at the expense of Southeast Asian farmers and stakeholders in agriculture.”

“The trade and political wars of US, China and Russia will overshadow the situation and struggles of Southeast Asian peasants demanding for land and liberation from land grabbing and monopolization of transnational corporations in the region’s agriculture.”

It said “we refuse to become mere spectators as imperialist powers decide on significant economic aspects including energy, education, finance, global health, environment and disaster management.”– With Ding Cervantes, Rhodina Villanueva, Ghio Ong