Makabayan solons seek probe of US Embassy dispersal

Manila policemen with shields block protesters from approaching the US Embassy on Oct. 19, 2016. Dozens were hurt when police dispersed the protesters calling for an independent foreign affairs policy for the Philippines. AP

Activist Makabayan lawmakers on Thursday sought a congressional inquiry into Wednesday’s dispersal of protesters by the police at the US Embassy, where a police mobile van was allegedly used like a “battering ram” to mow them down, injuring several people.

In an omnibus resolution, the lawmakers now allied with President Duterte’s supermajority in Congress asked the House of Representatives to condemn the actions of the Manila Police District in the violent dispersal of members of Moro and indigenous groups.

READ: Pimentel urges probe on violent US Embassy rally dispersal

They called on the House human rights committee to launch an immediate investigation, in aid of legislation, on the incident “with the end view of crafting more measures protecting the interests of marginalized groups.”

The authors of the resolution were Representatives Emmi De Jesus and Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna, Antonio Tinio and France Castro of ACT Teachers, Ariel Casilao of Anakpawis, and Sarah Elago of Kabataan.

Zarate and Castro filed the resolution before lunchtime at the House bills and index service.

Elago, who was present at the rally and got bruised during the fracas with the police, filed a separate resolution asking Congress to summon the involved police officers.

The Makabayan bloc said the protest action in front of the embassy in Manila started peacefully, as the demonstrators expressed their continuing objections to the presence of US troops in the country, particularly Balikatan exercises held on their ancestral lands.

READ: Van driver, Manila cops relieved over violent dispersal

The protesters also expressed their “strong support to the Duterte administration’s assertion of an independent foreign policy, away from the dictate and influence by western countries,” the lawmakers said.

“While the peaceful protest was about to end, the protesters were suddenly dispersed violently by the Manila Police under the command of Senior Supt. Marcelino Pedrozo. The police used water cannons, truncheons and tear gas, against the protesters, which injured many,” the resolution read.

At the height of the confrontation, a police mobile car was recorded being driven “like a battering ram that repeatedly ran over the protesters, thus, resulting in more serious injuries on several people including women,” they said.

One Police Officer 3 Franklin Kho of the Manila Police Department reportedly drove the vehicle.

“The action of the police officer, which was well documented by the media, was clearly premeditated and not only aimed to maim the protestors but even to kill, as he showed no regard to the lives of the people mowed down by the police car,” the Makabayan lawmakers said.

News footage showed several militants attacking the van from all sides with paint bombs and truncheons before the vehicle sped off erratically.

The incident left eleven protesters injured and hospitalized, three of them seriously after being run over by the police vehicle. At least 42 people, including some members of the medical team and the media, were also arrested by the police, the lawmakers said,

“There is an urgent need for the House of Representatives to express its condemnation to such blatant violation of the rights of the people to peaceably assemble and air their grievances that is enshrined in the Constitution,” they said.

Congress, they said, must not allow such “fascistic actions of the Philippine National Police to prosper under the new administration, particularly against the marginalized sector of our society like the national minorities.” CBB/rga

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