154 charged in Sept. 21 protest

PHILIPPINE authorities have charged 154 people arrested during the Sept. 21 anti-corruption protests in Manila with alleged offenses linked to violent clashes, including assault and unrest, a congressman said on Thursday.

Camarines Sur Rep. Arnie B. Fuentebella said 154 individuals were charged with arson, direct assault, physical assault, robbery, and destruction of property following a protest that turned violent when pockets of demonstrators clashed with police near roads leading to the presidential palace.

He said policemen did not use “excessive force” in arresting what he described as “rioters” amid the turmoil on Sept. 21, when thousands of Filipinos marched in the capital to protest the multi-billion-peso flood control scandal that has rocked the Southeast Asian nation.

“They were just protecting themselves — even though they were being kicked and pelted with objects, our police did not use excessive force,” Mr. Fuentebella told the House of Representatives floor in Filipino.

Tensions escalated as protesters clashed with police at Ayala Bridge near Quiapo, Manila. Protesters, mostly young people and wearing balaclavas, broke through metal barriers, grabbed police shields and threw stones at law enforcers.

Shortly after, another pocket of unrest broke out in Mendiola near the presidential palace as masked men dressed in black hurled rocks and makeshift Molotov cocktails at police officers holding crowd control lines. Protesters waved the Philippine flag alongside others bearing the Jolly Roger, a symbol associated with piracy, as some ignited makeshift flamethrowers using aerosol cans and lighters. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio