PHOTO
ESSAY
Raging Against the
Killings
There was no effigy to
burn, and there was no need for any, for the protesters were already in a
fiery mood.
TEXT
AND PHOTOS BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
They kept so silent
on their destination that they caught the police unprepared to set up a
block.
The rallyists
condemning the unabated killings on June 27 were eventually blocked by
elements of the Manila Police District at the corner of Earnshaw and
Legarda Streets. But the protesters took to Gastambide Street, and held a
program a stone’s throw away from Chino Roces Bridge, or Mendiola,
Malacañang’s no-rally zone.
The 3,000-strong
protesters were not daunted by the water cannon which the police used to
break their ranks. Though exhausted from running through the longer route
to Mendiola, specially the activists from Southern Tagalog who had just
finished their peace caravan, the protesters were determined to reclaim
Mendiola.
There was no effigy
to burn, and there was no need for any, for the rallyists were already in
a fiery mood.
The protesters were
equipped with various protest materials, as they call for a stop to the
political killings.
The die-in protest
was executed by a wave of people rising from the end of the formation up
to the front line. They held a noise barrage, with some protesters blowing
on whistles.
Neither hunger nor
the changing weather affected the protesters rage as they expressed their
condemnation to the human rights violations.
Just recently, three
peasant activists in Bulacan and another in Nueva Ecija were reported
missing since June 26, according to the Karapatan-Central Luzon.
Human rights group
Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) recorded 690
activists killed in the more than five years under President Arroyo. Of
this number, 360 were members of militant groups. Bulatlat
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