By Reachelyn Esona

Progressive groups condemned the repression against the protesters as the ASEAN Summit opens on Sunday, November 15. 

Activists gathered at Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila but found the area litteredwith feces and urine. The police also started to arrest scores of activists. 

At least 12 were arrested, reportedly from Kilusang Mayo Uno, Alliance of Nationalist and Genuine Labor Organization (ANGLO), PISTON, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Tambisan sa Sining, and Anakbayan. 

Read: Police violently disperse, arrest hundreds in Muntinlupa protest

Liwasang Bonifacio was supposed to be the venue of a campout site for rallyists joining the three-day protest against U.S. President Donald Trump. 

“We condemn the Manila police for attacking the peaceful march of protesters, the arrests made inside the freedom park, and the sabotage operations of the police by deflating the truck to be used for our protest program. The police used nails and ice picks to puncture the truck tires,” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said in a statement. 

The group also assailed the use of “no permit, no rally” by the police to justify the dispersal and arrests. 

“We assert that the actions of the police are illegal and undermine the people’s right to free speech. They have no right to demand a permit from those intending to go to Manila,” Bayan said, referring to the arrests of at least 200 activists from Southern Tagalog. 

“These are Marcosian tactics that defined the Martial Law era. Marcos Jr. is relying on the examples set by his notorious role models: the Imeldific “clearing operations” from his mother and the repressive measures from the fascist playbook of his dictator father,” Bayan said.

National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) President Ephraim B. Cortez emphasized that under Republic Act No. 880 or the Public Assembly Act of 1985, the absence of a permit alone does not justify dispersing or preventing peaceful demonstrations. He said that the protesters are only exercising their constitutional right to protest with or without a permit.

ACT Teachers Party Rep. Antonio Tinio meanwhile called the violence against protesters a “desperate and increasingly repressive campaign by Malacañang to silence, harass and prevent the massive protests being staged against the so-called ‘Pax Silica’ framework and the visit of US President Donald Trump.” 

“Clearly rattled by the increasing number of Filipinos trooping to the streets, Malacañang is resorting to desperate ploys — fake news, intimidation, harassment, red-tagging, and threats of force — to quell the people’s protest,” Tinio said in a statement. 

“The Marcos government must be reminded: rallies and protests are part and parcel of the constitutional rights to freedom of expression and of assembly. Wala silang karapatang hadlangan ito,” he added. 

Tinio stressed: “The real threat to national peace is not those who march, but the poverty, violence, and abuse that the people endure everyday.” (With reports from Anne Marxze Umil)(RVO)