ABOUT 50 people were injured on Wednesday as a police car rammed into a group made up of hundreds of indigenous people during a violent dispersal of protesters at the United States Embassy on Roxas Boulevard in Manila.
Several injured protesters, including students, were brought to hospital while 21 indigenous people were arrested.
The group Human Rights Watch said the indigenous people marched in Manila to demand respect for their basic human rights.
No one was able to explain why the protesters marched on the US Embassy and not on Malacañang or the Commission on Human Rights.
“They called for the government of President Rodrigo Duterte to drop the trumped-up charges brought by the previous administration against 200 tribal minority rights advocates and urged that state-security forces stop committing abuses against tribal minorities, particularly on the southern island of Mindanao,” said Carlos Conde, researcher for the Philippines of Human Rights Watch.
He said the protest was the latest attempt by indigenous groups to seek justice and accountability for the abuses committed against them.
Indigenous groups often bear the brunt of human rights violations by state security forces in the Philippines, especially in areas with mining and plantation interests.
The protesters identified the policeman who rammed them with his car as one Franklin Kho, but the Manila Police District refused to identify him.
Earlier, the protesters breached the police barricade and held a program in front of the US Embassy.
The police and members of a SWAT team led by Supt. Marcelino Pedrozo Jr. then ordered the dispersal of the protesters as their program was winding down.
The police fired teargas and water cannons at the protesters, some of whom were mauled. The police also attacked the photojournalists covering the rally.
The groups Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan condemned the police action.
“These acts of violence against legitimate protests clearly reveal the state’s policy of terror against the people,” KMP said.