MANILA: At least 20 demonstrators, most of them women, were hurt yesterday when dozens of anti-riot police dispersed a rally near the US Embassy protesting against the United States’ military presence in the Philippines.
Dozens of left-wing activists, including the women's group Gabriela, have been holding almost daily protests near the US Embassy in the capital to call for the termination of a security treaty between Manila and Washington.
They were also protesting the detention at the embassy of a US marine convicted of raping a Filipino at a former US naval base northwest of Manila in 2006.
“The anti-riot police were obviously gung-ho in attacking us,” Gabriela spokeswoman Joms Salvador said in a statement.
"There was no provocation coming from our side," she said.
Salvador said 20 protesters, most of them women, suffered cuts and bruises. She said the injured might file complaints against the anti-riot police officers.
Manila police chief Roberto Rosales said the anti-riot team was left with no choice but to push back and disperse the demonstration because “they were already violating the law.”
“They knew the US Embassy is a no-rally zone,” Rosales said, adding the protesters had refused to disperse and tried to break into the embassy grounds.
The Philippines is a former US colony and remains one of its closest security allies in the Asia-Pacific region.
The two countries have held annual joint military exercises since 2002. Hundreds of US troops are in the south of the Philippines to help put down rebels.
