Rights group: Arrested protesters not rioters, thugs

FOR SEPT. 21 VIOLENCE Persons arrested for the riots that erupted on Mendiola and Recto streets in Manila near Malacañang, a violent episode in the otherwise generally peaceful Sept. 21 rallies against corruption, are lined up for inquest proceedings on Tuesday at the Manila Police District headquarters. Authorities say a total of 216 people, including 89 minors, were arrested. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

A human rights advocacy group has objected to authorities and media describing as “riots” the clashes that marred the Sept. 21 anticorruption protests and the 216 participants arrested by the police as “rioters” and “criminals.”

In a statement on Tuesday, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) described the suspects as “far from being criminals, [since] these protesters are the conscience of a nation outraged at (President Marcos’) corrupt flood-control and infrastructure projects, his ‘anti-corruption’ posturing and his deep entanglement with political patrons and contractors.”

“The youth, urban poor, and workers who joined the standoff on the historic Mendiola Bridge were not ‘thugs.’ They are citizens whose communities are drowning in poverty and floodwaters while the powerful enrich themselves,” ICHRP chair Peter Murphy said.

He described the “mass arrests” and “violent dispersal” of the protesters as “human rights violations.”

Amid the protests held at Rizal Park in Manila and at the People Power Monument in Quezon City, a group of young people dressed in black and wearing masks torched a container truck and other vehicles, destroyed city property and harmed or held up bystanders in sight.

The group also pelted police officers securing Ayala Bridge and Mendiola with rocks, Molotov cocktails and even feces.

The clash at Recto dragged on until the wee hours of Monday, by which time the police had rounded up 216 suspects, including 89 minors. —WITH A REPORT FROM GABRYELLE DUMALAG