Militants groups protesting vs EJKs clash with cops outside DOJ

Protesters from militant groups depict President Rodrigo Duterte and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II as criminals riding-in-tandem on a motorcycle during a protest at the Department of Justice on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. (Photo from the Sandugo Facebook account)

Published: 8:26 p.m., Sept. 19, 2017 | Updated: 9:40 p.m., Sept. 19, 2017

Militant groups protesting against extrajudicial killings clashed with the police outside the Department of Justice in Manila on Tuesday morning.

Nobody was reported hurt on the side of the protesters. But PO1 Reinero Grutas of the MPD Public Safety Safety Battalion suffered a leg injury, according to Supt. Emerie Abating, chief of the MPD Station 5.

In a text message to the INQUIRER.net, Abating said Grutas was taken to the Ospital ng Maynila, which discharged him shortly after treatment.

In a statement by Sandugo, an alliance of Moro and Lumad groups, the protesters were calling out Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II “for his deliberate inaction on the killings of the national minorities while he actively pursues filing of trumped up charges against communist leaders, Lumad school teachers.”

The protesters got through the barricades despite being blocked by law enforcers.

They depicted President Rodrigo Duterte and Aguirre as criminals riding-in-tandem on a motorcycle.

“Kitang-kita sa mga sinasabi at ginagawa ni Secretary Aguirre na si President Duterte ang pinagsisilbihan niya imbes na mamayan. He is President Duterte’s accomplice,” Jerome Aba, Sandugo co-chairperson, said.

Human rights group Karapatan also called for the release of indigenous people, church workers, and teachers, imprisoned by the Duterte administration.

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay also cited the recent warrant of arrests targeting teachers of the Center for Lumad Advocacy, Networking and Services, Inc. (Clans) and members of the school’s parent-teacher community association. /atm