Police Disperse Thousands of Anti-War Protesters in Manila, Baguio 
Millions of protesters hold civil disobedience protests across the globe

In the Philippines and worldwide, U.S. embassies bore the brunt of protest marches and rallies as millions of anti-war protesters took to the streets spontaneously as the countdown began and U.S. warplanes began attacking Iraq. In the Philippines, anti-war protesters in their tens of thousands took to the streets with the U.S. Embassy the center of condemnation. But police dispersed many of the protests with truncheons and water cannons even as SWAT teams were deployed as well with armalites and machineguns cocked.

By Ronalyn Olea 
Bulatlat.com

Anti-war activists and groups in their tens of thousands opposed to the U.S. war in Iraq took to the streets in Metro Manila, Baguio City, Cebu, Iloilo and other parts of the country in the countdown to the invasion and as U.S. President George W. Bush wasted no time ordering air strikes against Iraq at zero-hour.

Since March 18 (Manila time) when Bush announced a 48-hour ultimate to Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Baghdad or face American might, anti-war protesters converged on the U.S. embassy in Manila and in other locations. Pickets and mass rallies were launched not only to condemn the U.S. invasion which groups coalesced under the Justice Not War Coalition said, was a war of aggression on a small, helpless country. Transportation strikes and other forms of anti-war protest were also held particularly in the provinces.

As expected, police in Manila were ready, with a contingent of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) armed with baby armalites and machineguns to block entry to the U.S. embassy. They were ordered to disperse the protest rallies, resulting in a mayhem.

Robert de Castro, deputy secretary general of Bayan Muna, said police officers refused to negiotiate with the protesters in the first days of their anti-war protests in Manila. 

On March 18, protesters were blocked by anti-riot police at the corner of Kalaw Avenue and Roxas Boulevard. Using water cannons and truncheons, the police injured several protesters, with one reportedly suffering fractured legs.  Four youth activists were brought to the nearby Philippine General Hospital. The dispersal took place after protesters were able to throw red paint on the embassy seal.

On the same day, about 200 peace advocates gathered in Baguio City in northern Philippines to condemn Bush’s ultimatum to Saddam Hussein . Police under the command of Col. Ernesto Gaab blocked the protest march, Dinteg spokesperson Beverly Longid said.

Pikit militarization

Protest rallies led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan – New Patriotic Alliance) were also held across Mindanao island in southern Philippines. The anti-war rallies also condemned the recent Davao City bombing and the militarization of Buliok Complex and Pikit, North Cotabato forcing more than 100,000 civilians to evacuate.

About 10,000 took to the streets in the cities of Davao and Cagayan de Oro. Similar anti-war protests were held in Butuan, General Santos, Valencia, Malaybalay, Dipolog, Ozamiz, Cotabato, Kidapawan and Pagadian.

The following day, thousands of members of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP- Peasant Movement in the Philippines) and and the fisherfolk Pamalakaya from Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog held a vigil on Rizal Park, fronting the U.S. embassy in Manila. Making sure no reporters were around, Manila police and plainclothesmen violently dispersed the night vigil.

Then on March 20, simultaneous prayer and protest assemblies were held at the St. Peter's Church on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City; at Sta. Ana Church in Manila; in Plaza Miranda in Manila; and along Ayala Avenue cor. Paseo de Roxas in Makati City.

A nightly noise-barrage protest started the same day at converging points in Metro Manila, including Monumento in Caloocan City and Trabajo Market in Sampaloc, Manila.

Across the country

Meanwhile, transport workers in Cebu launched “preemptive transport strikes” against what they called "a bloody war for oil and subsequent steep increases in crude prices." Similar strikes were mounted in the entire island of Panay for two days, March 19 and 20.

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal appealed to people to continue holding peace rallies to show to the world that there are people who are sincere in their desire to attain peace. In Bacolod City, Negros Occidental Bishop Vicente Navarra echoed the same message, saying “We should look at the well being of others, in situations like this it is necessary that we help each other, especially the poor.”

"With President Arroyo seemingly bent on supporting her master in Washington, it now rests on our shoulders to assert our national interests and aspirations for peace," said Renato Reyes, Bayan spokesperson.

Sympathy strikes

The New People’s Army (NPA), meanwhile, announced it will launch tactical strikes in sympathy with the Iraqi people and against the U.S. invasion, based on a statement read by Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) spokesperson Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal.

Following the CPP announcement, NPA fighters raided on March 21 the armory of Picop in Bislig City in Central Mindanao, seizing 92 rifles. Picop is a big paper manufacturing plant. Digma Makabayan, spokesperson of the Ka Bob Ruiz Command, said the arms confiscation is the NPA’s biggest haul since 1992.  

Rosal urged the peoples of the world to topple all governments supportive of U.S. war of aggression.

In a separate reaction, Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDF), said the U.S. is undertaking a war of aggression against Iraq not only to grab oil resources but also to justify drastic increases in U.S. military spending and step up war production.  “The current ruling clique in the U.S., headed by Bush, believes that wars and rising war production can solve the grave economic and financial crisis of the U.S. and world capitalist system,” Sison said.

GMA’s support to the U.S. war

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced Thursday that the Philippines has joined U.S. President Bush’s “coalition of the willing,” extending political and moral support to the U.S. war in Iraq. Part of the commitment was allowing U.S. military aircraft the use of the country’s air space and refuelling stations.

No Filipino troops will be deployed, she said, except for post-war peacekeeping and reconstruction.

On Saturday, she went on the air to defend her government’s decision to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq, saying it was a war between “good and evil” and that it is meant to liberate the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein’s tyranny. 

Illegality of war and GMA’s support

The president’s pro-war stance was however opposed by at least 46 congressmen. In a statement, the Legislators Again War (LAW) led by convenor and Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo, condemned the unilateral military action of the U.S. and urged Macapagal-Arroyo to desist from giving any form of support to “such unilateral and illegal act.”

They also asked the president to explain to the public why her government joined the so-called 45-nation “coalition of the willing and and clearly spell out the “moral and political support” that her government has reportedly pledged to the Bush administration.

House Resolution No.1079 initiated by LAW stated that the war is inconsistent with the stated principles of the 1987 Philippine Constitution which “renounces war as an instrument of national policy, adopts the general principles of international law as part of the law of the land and adheres to the policy of peace, equality, justice, freedom, cooperation and amity with all nations.”

The unilateral military action of the United States against Iraq, the said resolution maintains,  violates international law and the United Nations Charter as well as the the 1987 Philippine Constitution. ( The House resolution is posted on Bulatlat.com’s Democratic Space.)

In another statement, a group of lawyers said the “invasion of  Iraq by the U.S. armed forces is a war for the domination of the world, for the subjection of the national sovereignty, political independence, territorial integrity, and economic resources of states to the imperial prerogatives of the lone superpower.”

The group, Public Interest Law Center (PILC), said “there is absolutely no justification under international law for the US invasion of Iraq.” The group, headed by UN ad litem judge Romeo Capulong, also reminded the government that under the UN Charter all states are under obligation not to use force or to threaten another state with force.  The "use and threat of force" and "acts of aggression" are considered not only illegal, but a negation of the very rationale of the UN system. 

Citing Article 5 in relation to Article 3 (f) of the G.A. Resolution 3314, the PILC lawyers said the Macapagal-Arroyo government and all other governments that support the U.S. invasion of Iraq incur international  responsibility and are criminals under international law. 

Leaders and followers alike, from states-parties to the statutes of the International Criminal Court (ICC), including the United Kingdom, Spain, Bulgaria and Australia, are inviting indictments before the ICC whose jurisdiction extends to the overlapping crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression, they added.

OFWs in peril

Labor and migrant groups also disputed the claim by Macapagal-Arroyo that the 1.5 million overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East are safe.  The Executive Council of the Riyadh OFW Congress in Saudi Arabia, for instance, expressed apprehension on the preparedness of the government to assist the OFWs.

A recent survey conducted by the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) also showed that less than 50 percent of 400 OFWs interviewed are aware of such contingency plans. The survey was conducted among migrant Filipinos in Israel, Kuwait, and in Riyadh and Eastern Province in Saudi Arabia.

Ramon Bultron, APMM managing director, said that  "still more glaring is that 58 percent of our OFWs in the said areas have expressed their dissatisfaction over the said (contingency) plan (of government)."

Information campaign on the contingency plan is practically non-existent in some areas, Bultron said. In other areas where there are evacuation centers, lack of sufficient services and facilities has heightened the anxiety among the OFWs.

Bultron also revealed that 70 percent of the respondents disapproved of the U.S. war and Macapagal-Arroyo’s support to Bush.

Overseas protests

Scenes of protest in various parts of the globe

Outside the Philippines, powerful protests against the war broke out in several cities in North America, Europe, South America, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

According to the International ANSWER coalition and other sources, more than a million protesters around the world demonstrated on March 20 against the U.S. war with Iraq. Similar rallies were being held at presstime.   

In San Francisco, more than 1,000 people were arrested as tens of thousands protested across America against the U.S. war in Iraq. In New York, which bore the brunt of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, "September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows" also condemned what they called an “illegal and immoral U.S. war.”

Anti-war demonstrators outnumbered police during rush hour in Times Square, completely shutting Broadway. Joining the rallies were students across the nation, including at Harvard University, where hundreds walked out of classes at noon. At the University of California's Berkeley campus, a hotbed of dissent against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s, students occupied the main administration building for several hours where 120 of them were arrested.

Protests were also held in Florida, Minnesota, Iowa and Maine.

In Sydney, Australia, almost 20,000 people still managed to gather even with only three hours notice. The rally was led by the Walk Against War Coalition (WAWC), people of all ages arrived with placards, children and even imitation gas masks in tow.

Meanwhile, about 20, 000 gathered in Melbourne led by Australian actors Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts and Joel Edgerton chanting "George Bush go to hell, we won't fight a war for Shell," some 3,000 in Brisbane's King George Square, and more than 1,500 in front of U.S. embassy in Canberra.

In London, thousands of British anti-war protesters blocked roads and scuffled with police. In France, some 10,000 people, mostly students, rushed through Paris chanting anti-war slogans while burning the U.S. flag.

In Cairo, Egypt, riot police used water cannons on about 5,000 demonstrators hurling stones and metal barricades preventing them from reaching the U.S. Embassy.

Same in Germany, more than 100,000 protesters, mostly students, marched to the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece, while chanting ``No to the war'' and ``Americans, killers of people.'' Demonstrators marched to the U.S. Consulate in the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki, while others rallied outside the British Consulate in the western port of Patras.

About 45,000 students and labor union members joined the protests in several Italian cities. Other anti-war demonstrators were marching up Via Veneto toward the U.S. Embassy when blocked by police. Others paralyzed highways and train tracks after a two-hour nationwide general strike was called in the late afternoon.

In Dhaka, Bangladesh, more than 15,000 joined the protest while chanting anti-U.S. slogans. Leftist forces joined hands with Islamic demonstrators in burning American and British flags.  

In Japan, demonstrators gathered at the U.S. embassies and consulate in different cities. Over 1,000 people surrounded the building of the U.S. consulate in Osaka were also harassed by the police.

Thousands more turned out in Madrid, Calcutta, Buenos Aires, Yemen, Frankfurt, Moscow, Turkey, Amman, Cyprus, Lansing, MI; Columbus OH, Lexington, KY, Tucson, AZ; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Beirut, many Palestinian cities and refugee camps, Bangkok, Seoul, Toronto,Vancouver, Moscow and many other cities and countries. With Aubrey SC  Makilan / Bulatlat.com

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