Friday, February 01, 2008 6 students nabbed, 23 others hurt in Manila Hotel rally
SIX students were arrested while about 23 militant students and teachers were hurt when their group clashed with Manila Police District (MPD) policemen who were securing the premises of the Manila Hotel for delegates of an ongoing education congress, where the President was guest speaker Thursday.
Nabbed by police were Joanna Rose Adenit and Emman Montado of the Philippine Normal University, Crimson Laglera of Anakbayan-Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Alvin Cerrano of the League of Filipino Students (LFS)-PUP, Vic del Rosario from Caloocan and Arlo Cervantes of University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman.
The injured rallyists were taken to Ospital ng Maynila.
Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) president Antonio Tinio acquired cuts and bruises on his arms while attempting to negotiate with MPD Director Roberto Rosales.
Youth groups National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), Anakbayan, LFS and Kabataang Pinoy, along with teachers from ACT, staged a protest rally against the Malacañang-sponsored education summit which opened last Thursday morning at the Manila Hotel.
Fully equipped riot police, however, did not allow protesting militants to come close to the hotel, intercepting them some 100-meters from the hotel and chasing them in the general direction of Manila City Hall.
The students commenced with the protest just as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo entered the hotel to deliver her keynote address.
Reports said the MPD policemen used nightsticks to beat some protesters who got too close to the hotel's perimeter.
They claimed that the protesters did not secure a rally permit.
The protesters had planned to mount a picket at the education congress to press their demand for an increase in the budget for education, saying the educational congress was just a "farce" and should be aptly called "anti-student summit."
"All we wanted was to voice out our voices, our issues and demands as primary stakeholders in the education sector. It was not at all our intention to disrupt the summit. All we wanted was to air our grievances because the government appears to have deliberately ignored our interests," said NUSP president Alvin Peters.
The teachers, on the other hand, questioned their salary deductions from the Government Service Insurance System and to the pending release of their long-overdue P1,000 election duty allowance and P3,000 performance bonus.
The group said they will stage a bigger protest on Friday, the last day of the summit. Students from Southern Tagalog are expected to join the protest. They also said they are preparing to come up with a critique of the recommendations of the education summit over the weekend. (ECV/Sunnex)
