Police arrest 23 near Malacañang

Anti-riot Manila policemen apprehended 23 militant students who tried to stage a lightning rally at Gate 7 of Malacañang yesterday morning to condemn President Arroyo for the alleged inaction of her government on issues about the Balikatan exercises and tuition fee increases.

Members of the Youth for Nationalism and Democracy (YND) and National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) were rounded up at around 11:30 a.m. by a Western Police District team.

Chief Inspector Bernie Banalo, head of the team, said the youths will be booked by the WPD-General Assignment Section on charges of illegal assembly.

"Gate 7 is a restricted area. They could have staged the protest in Mendiola, where they are allowed to hold rallies," Banalo explained, noting that the rallyists did not have a permit to hold a protest.

For their part, the militant students condemned the apprehension. NUSP secretary general Christina Palabay said the Arroyo administration refuses to listen to the points they have been raising for several days regarding the Balikatan exercises and tuition fee increases.

Palabay was one of the 20 students rounded up. "The President has not responded to any of our demands, like a stop to tuition fee increases. And the dialogue she set with us is only Malacañang’s way of dampening the growing protest against the holding of Balikatan 02-1," Palabay added.

Some sectors, particularly militant groups are protesting the ongoing joint RP-US military exercises in Mindanao because it violated the Philippine Constitution, they said.

Militant groups said Balikatan exercises would only enable American forces to re-establish their bases in the Philippines.

Palabay’s group vowed to hold more mass actions to force President Arroyo to give in to the demands of their group, including the recall of the order allowing Balikatan 2002.

The Anti-Imperialist Movement of the Youth (AIM of the Youth) also denounced the dispersal and arrest of the young rallyists.

"As though President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has not been satisfied in calling us un-Filipino and Abu Sayyaf lovers, her police assaulted our ranks. The fascist character of the government unfolds as she defends, in outright puppetry, the presence of US troops in the country," said Salvacion Lagos, vice president for Luzon of the National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP).

"Respecting the rights of the youth to free assembly and free expression is the least thing she can do after ignoring the youth’s legitimate demands. Even this, she failed to do," Lagos added.