Nude protest at U-Belt

Some 15 male youths ran naked around the University Belt near Malacañang in Manila yesterday, saying they wanted to "bare the government’s shortcomings" in education funding.

The activists, members of the Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Lakas ng Kabataan, stripped at the foot of the Chino Roces Bridge in Mendiola after emerging from a parked Mitsubishi L-300 van.

With "Education for All" written on their bodies in red paint, the activists snarled traffic and drew giggles from passing females.

At one point, they attempted to cross the barricade leading to Malacañang, but were stopped by police who forced them to briefly parade — covered only with caps and dark glasses — in the middle of a traffic-choked road.

They also lay down on the scorching road, some spreading their legs, before a throng of photographers and TV cameramen.

Leonardo de los Reyes, spokesman of the group, said the protest "symbolized the naked truth on the difficult education in the country due to poor investment resulting in 13.4 million out-of-school youths.

"We are here not to show our bodies but to bare the government’s shortcomings," he said.

They cited the shortage of classrooms and assailed the unrestrained increase in tuition and miscellaneous fees.

The police did not arrest any of the protesters who after the rally boarded a van and left without any incident. – Nestor Etolle, AP