For the second day in a row, militant groups, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States, failed to reach the Chino Roces Bridge (formerly Mendiola Bridge) in Manila where they had planned to stage a camp-out to dramatize their dissatisfaction with the Aquino government’s failure to deliver basic social services.
At around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, riot policemen used truncheons and water cannons to disperse the around 500 “Occupy Mendiola” protesters who were marching on Bustillos Street on their way to the bridge.
Five of them were picked up by policemen and taken to the Manila Police District (MPD) headquarters.
The five were not identified although four of them were confirmed to be students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), according to Rommel Aguilar, PUP student regent.
They are facing complaints of illegal assembling and resisting arrest.
“We are calling for social change. We will do our best to proceed with the camp-out at Mendiola. We believe our calls are just and serve the interest of 99 percent of the Filipinos,” Aguilar said.
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) chairman Elmer Labog called the police action an “overkill.”
“We condemn the Aquino government’s repression of our right to hold protests even as it fails to solve the growing hunger and poverty in the country. The president, a beneficiary of the Hacienda Luisita massacre for which he has not sought justice, is showing a glimpse of the iron hand hidden under his velvet glove,” he said in a press statement.
MPD Station 3 commander, Superintendent James Afalla, meanwhile, defended his men’s actions.
“They [protesters] have no permit. Mendiola Bridge is not a freedom park so they can’t just disturb the area with their protests. It is also near Malacañang, the seat of government, so what they are doing can be considered inciting [to] sedition,” he told the Inquirer.
The militants, composed of representatives from students, farmers and peasants and labor groups, had clashed with the police the day before after they tried to march from C. M. Recto Avenue to Mendiola.
They later retreated and set up tents at Plaza Miranda in Quiapo where they stayed the night.
“The citizens want a peaceful camp-out. Not being hit by the police. Not water cannons. Not being hurt by those in power. Not timed convictions,” propaganda officer Jonalyn Paz of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines said in a text message to reporters.
The protest is also a call against budget cuts in basic social services, poverty and the economic crisis (“Kampuhan Kontra Kaltas, Kahirapan at Krisis”).
More militant groups have expressed their intent to join the mass action in the next days.
Afalla, however, said that the police would continue to prevent the activists from holding protests and camping out in Mendiola although he stressed that they were practicing maximum tolerance as the protesters were fallowed to hold a brief program on Tuesday.
He also explained that the water cannons were not being used for dispersal but for defense because the protesters were pushing against the police barricade.
The international “Occupy” protests which began with rallies and camp-outs in Wall Street protests, among other things, social inequality.