13 cops hurt in USM picket in NCotabato

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – Thirteen policemen were injured in a clash Wednesday dawn with picketers blocking the gates of the University of Southern Mindanao (USM) in North Cotabato, demanding the relief of the school’s  president.

The injured policemen were to dismantle the picket and reopen the school gates to enable USM president Jesus Antonio Derije to report for work and restore students’ access to their classrooms inside their 1,024-hectare campus at the town center of Kabacan municipality in the first district of North Cotabato.

School officials said the picketers are being instigated by some “influential outsiders” seeking the ouster of Derije, after the school management started evicting illegal settlers tilling government lands being used by USM for agricultural research and studies.

Students affected by the picket have been calling on Malacañang and the Commission on Higher Education to intervene and restore order in the USM campus.

Classes at the USM have been suspended for three weeks now due to the presence of the picketers, some of them armed with machetes and wooden clubs with metal spikes, blocking the school gates.

Sr. Supt. Danny Peralta, director of the Cotabato provincial police, said the policemen sent to reopen the school gates tried to talk to the picketers politely, but were attacked, causing a violent confrontation.

Witnesses said the picketers also pelted the policemen with stones, causing the latter head injuries.

“They were met with so much force and violence by the protesters so they had to retreat so as not to escalate the situation,” Peralta told reporters.

Seven of the 13 injured policemen, PO1s Ronald Abayasa, Ryan Valdez, Elmer Dizon, Jeff Concepcion, and three others identified only with their surnames Saturnino, Taniala, and Ballescas, were rushed to  a hospital not far from the USM campus.

Most of the injured policemen were hit by stones hurled by the picketers.

Supt. Leo Ajero, chief of the Kabacan municipal police, said four picketers were hauled to their detention facility for carrying bladed weapons.

Local officials have asked the joint ceasefire committee of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to investigate the alleged involvement of some MILF members in the now four-week picket.

Some of the illegal settlers inside the USM campus are members of the MILF, according to sources.

Organizers of the picket told reporters several picketers were also injured in the melee.

The picketers have been demanding Derije’s ouster over his alleged mismanagement of USM and mishandling of the university’s coffer.