Three Filipinos seriously injured after police van rams into them during anti-US rally
Image via YouTube
19th October 2016SEVERAL protesters in the Philippines were seriously injured when a police van rammed into them during an anti-U.S rally which turned violent on Wednesday at the American embassy in Manila.
According to the Associated Press, protest leader Renato Reyes said at least three student activists had were rushed to hospital after the van driven by a police officer plowed into them.
Footage of the incident showed the van repeatedly ramming the protesters as it drove wildly back and forth after protesters had surrounded and started hitting it with wooden batons they had seized from the police.
Rally-goers hurled red paint at the policemen and a U.S. government seal at the seaside embassy leading to the arrests of 23 protesters who broke into a police cordon.
“There was absolutely no justification for it,” Reyes was quoted as saying. “Even as the president vowed an independent foreign policy, Philippine police forces still act as running dogs of the U.S.”
He said police dispersed about 1,000 protesters violently in the protest.
The group was demanding the end of U.S. military presence in the former American colony, echoing President Rodrigo Duterte’s foreign policy shift to reduce dependency on it’s longtime treaty ally in favour of China and Russia.
Duterte is in China this week in a visit to bolster ties with Beijing. Since taking office in June, the president has in recent months had a falling out with the U.S., largely due to his controversial war on drugs which had claimed more than 3,500 lives in the past few months.
Katribu sec gen Piya Malayao hurt in protest dispersal by Manila Police at US Embassy #LakbayangPambansangMinorya
