PNP to help cops hurt in anti-APEC rallies

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine National Police will shoulder the medical expenses of the policemen who were hurt in clashes with militant groups protesting the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) summit, PNP chief Director General Ricardo Marquez said yesterday.

Marquez said this is in line with “the morale and welfare program of PNP personnel.”

He said four policemen were taken to the hospital after being wounded in a scuffle with protesters in separate rallies held at Liwasang Bonifacio, Manila and Buendia in Pasay City the other day.

Marquez and Interior and Local Government Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento visited the five anti-riot policemen who were hurt in the rallies.

Three of the five policemen were rushed to Manila Doctors Hospital while two others were taken to the Ospital ng Maynila.

Among the police officers hurt in the scuffle with protesters were PO1 Mark Andrew de la Cruz, PO1 Rowel John Felipe, PO1 Michael Angeles, PO1 Christian Nataon and PO3 Leandro Belenio Jr., who was also brought to the hospital for heat exhaustion.

Sarmiento and Marquez also visited SPO1 Darwin Lorenzo, a Quezon City traffic cop who figured in a vehicular accident yesterday.

On the other hand, Anakpawis party-list commended the militant groups that protested the holding of the APEC.

Anakpawis said the organizations from rural-based sectors have been protesting against APEC activities in various places in the country since February this year.

“We deem the anti-APEC campaign of the toiling masses was a success as the Aquino government was not able to silence us, amidst its blockade and harassment actions to prevent them from arriving in Manila,” Anakpawis Rep. Fernando Hicap said.

Police used water cannons and loud music to distract and disperse thousands of protesters near the venue of the leaders’ meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

Hicap said the struggle of Filipino basic sectors against APEC is just and should continue, citing the fact that the 10-point APEC 2015 Declaration or even the document of APEC’s Agenda 9 “practically found the workers and farmers not worth mentioning.”

He also cited the “gross hypocrisy” in APEC’s first agenda of “building inclusive economies,” saying that since the country’s holding of the 1996 APEC summit, the promise of socio-economic benefits to poor sectors has remained unfulfilled.

“As the recent APEC summit pronounced nothing new, and that everything about APEC comes in the neo-liberal packages of privatization, deregulation and liberalization, the ordinary Filipino has gained nothing at all,” Hicap said. – Paolo Romero, Rhodina Villanueva