INQUIRER | Activists storm Palace gates; 20 arrested

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Activists storm Palace gates; 20 arrested Tina Santos Rem Zamora Philippine Daily Inquirer August 20, 2009 MANILA, Philippines—Those pricey dinners left a bad taste—and an ooze of blood—in the mouth of student activists Wednesday. Militant youth groups denouncing the Arroyo administration’s “excessive” spending, including the costly restaurant meals that she and her party had during a recent visit to the United States, breached Malacañang gates on Wednesday and provoked a brief but violent clash with Palace guards. Authorities arrested at least 20 protesters out of the estimated 200 students who used side streets to sneak past a police outpost at the historic Mendiola Bridge and staged a lightning rally at Malacañang’s Gate 7. Witnesses said some students emerged bloodied in the mouth upon contact with blocking forces from the Manila Police District (MPD) and the Presidential Security Group (PSG). The demonstrators included members of Anakbayan, League of Filipino Students (LFS), Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP), and College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP). Arrested were students from Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman and a high school student. Over in minutes The students managed to hold a sit-in rally in front of Gate 7, an opening facing Mendiola, before breaking through at around 11 a.m. They were initially blocked by less than 10 MPD and PSG members. Within minutes, reinforcements increased the Palace guards to a phalanx of about 30. The dispersal lasted only about 10 minutes. The arrested students were first brought to Ospital ng Maynila for medical checkup, then later to the MPD headquarters on UN Avenue where they were detained on charges of illegal assembly. Interviewed two hours after the violent dispersal, SCMP chair Cristina Guevarra said 17 of her arrested colleagues suffered mild to serious physical injuries. Rally resumed Guevarra was leading about 50 protesters—or what remained of the original assembly—who by then had resumed their protest rally in front of the MPD compound, this time to demand the release of their peers. Guevarra identified the arrested students as Mark Gil Gamido (Anakbayan-Culiat High School); Likha Gaia Flores and Karl Villasenor (Anakbayan); Jessa Dulay (LFS); Yasmin Ongay, Charmaine Guevarra, Lia Torres (Anakbayan UP-Diliman); Absolom Eligio, Allan de Guzman, Warren Gutierrez, Michael Non (LFS UP-Diliman); Abriel Mansilungan (Kabataan Partylist-PUP); Giemma Canalis and Kimberly Salas (SCMP-PUP); Elvin Rillo (PUP); Lea Jamayan (LFS-PUP); Anna Usabel Manalang and Andrew Alejo (Anakbayan-PUP); Nida Grefaldo and Anton Perdigon (CEGP). ‘What maximum tolerance?’ Negotiations for the release of the 20 students were still ongoing at press time. “We just want her (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) to step down. We are here to condemn corruption amid so much poverty. Corruption is their response instead of doing something to alleviate Filipinos from poverty,” Guevarra told the Inquirer. “They suddenly hit us with truncheons the moment they saw us in Malacañang. I thought they were supposed to observe maximum tolerance,” Anakbayan-PUP chair Chaser Soriano added in Filipino. The PSG declined to comment on the violent dispersal. Press Secretary Cerge Remonde and deputy presidential spokesperson Anthony Golez did not reply to Inquirer’s calls. Under fire Malacañang has come under fire in the past two weeks over reports that lavish spending surrounded Ms Arroyo’s visit to the United States for a long-sought meeting with President Barack Obama. Church and opposition leaders have since slammed the President for extravagance and insensitivity amid widespread poverty in the country and the global economic crisis. Critics have pounced mainly on the $20,000 (about P1 million) dinner tab she and her entourage of mostly lawmakers picked up at the classy Le Cirque restaurant in New York and another dinner, costing the equivalent of P750,000, in Washington, DC. Apparently reeling from this public backlash, the Palace early this week canceled a plan to buy a new P1.2-billion presidential jet. With a report from TJ Burgonio