ILOILO CITY—Five members of militant organizations led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan were arrested and several others were injured after police clashed with anti-government protesters during the Independence Day rites in Iloilo Friday morning.
Senior Supt. Kashmir Disomangcop, Iloilo City police director, said the five were arrested after the protesters allegedly forced their way into the a police blockade near Plaza Libertad.
The plaza is about 1.6 kilometers from the old Iloilo provincial capitol where President Aquino and members of the diplomatic corps were attending the traditional Independence Day vin d’honneur.
Disomangcop said the protesters were allowed to hold their rally only at the plaza as part of security measures.
An undetermined number of policemen were also injured while shields were damaged, according to the police official.
He said those detained at the Iloilo City Police Precinct 1 will be charged with malicious mischief and direct assault among others.
But Hope Hervilla, chair of the Panay chapter of Bayan, said they were only asking to go near the Freedom Grandstand, about 200 meters from the plaza. “We were unarmed and beating us with truncheons is uncalled for,” she said.
The protesters earlier held a mock vin d’honneur to condemn policies and programs of the government which they said are biased in favor of big foreign business firms and “makes a mockery of Independence Day.”
They cited the failed move to amend provisions of the 1987 Constitution to allow the 100 percent foreign ownership of land in the country as well as the Visiting Forces Agreement and other pacts with the United States.