Cops disperse rally vs budget cuts to UP Visayas, arrest 11

Policemen armed with truncheons and shields force back a group of mainly students protesters from the University of the Philippines Visayas protesting cuts in the UP budget.  Nestor P. Burgos Jr./INQUIRER VISAYAS

ILOILO CITY—Hundreds of policemen armed with truncheons and shields on Thursday dispersed a protest by mainly students and teachers of the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) against cuts to UP’s budget and the educational system.

Police arrested 11 persons including a vicar general of the Philippine Independent Church and two UPV faculty members who were charged with illegal assembly and “disobedience to lawful order.”

Those arrested were still detained at the Iloilo City Police Precinct 1 as of 5:40 p.m.

They included Fr. Marco Sulayao, vicar general of the Diocese of Iloilo of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and Hope Hervilla, chair of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan on Panay Island.

The detained UPV faculty teachers were humanities teacher Erick Dasig Aguilar, a playwright and Palanca awardee; and Gretchen Velarde who teaches history at UPV’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS).

The teachers agreed to go with the policemen so that the students would be allowed to leave a police cordon, according to Aguilar.

Insp. Shella Mae Acanto-Sangrines, spokesperson of the Apec 2015 Iloilo City Site Task Group, said the protesters were dispersed for having no permit to hold the rally.

“The dispersal was done peacefully and according to procedures. We made sure none of the students were harmed and they were allowed to go home,” Sangrines told the INQUIRER.

But the UPV CAS student council condemned the dispersal as “harassment” by police.

UPV Chancellor Rommel Espinosa expressed support for the protest of the teachers and students. He said school officials and lawyers were sent the police station to assist the teachers.

“We are against cuts in UP’s budget and the students and teachers were merely expressing their sentiments,” Espinosa told the INQUIRER.

Similar protest actions were held by other UP units in other parts of the country.

In Cebu City, several UP Cebu College teachers and students walked out of the classrooms to hold a rally outside the campus in Barangay Lahug.

Espinosa said they were unaware that protest actions in the main streets of the city were banned due to the meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Council (Apec).

Espinosa protested the entry of anti-riot policemen at the city campus after the dispersal of the protest.

“We asked them to leave the campus because the students who had just been dispersed reacted upon seeing the policemen,” he said.

UPV allowed traffic policemen to be deployed for the Apec meetings inside the campus but not the anti-riot personnel.

About 300 protesters assembled at the city campus early in the afternoon before proceeding to the provincial capitol.

But the protesters were cut off by policemen a few meters from the school with only about 100 able to proceed along General Luna Street.

More than 200 policemen blocked their route about 300 meters from the UPV campus. The students and other protesters were then pushed and shoved back by anti-riot police at sidewalk fronting a restaurant.

After a standoff that lasted for nearly an hour, police started to allow the students but arrested and handcuffed leaders of militant groups.

This is the second dispersal of protest actions in four days in Iloilo City.

Last Monday, protesters commemorating the 43rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law were also dispersed near the provincial capitol.