Militants face raps for attack on Aquino home, cops

MANILA, Philippines - Twelve police officers who were wounded in a clash with protesters outside President Aquino’s Quezon City home on Saturday will be filing charges against the activists, a Palace official said yesterday.

“What the protesters did in terms of vandalism and inflicting injuries on members of the Philippine National Police clearly exceeded the maximum limit of freedom of expression. The government will not allow that to happen again,” Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office said.

Charges of physical injury, direct assault against persons in authority and illegal assembly are being readied against the group of Antonio Flores, secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Senior Superintendent Joel Pagdilao said in his report to Malacañang.

Charges of vandalism will also be filed against the militants, Pagdilao said.

Assistant Quezon City Prosecutor Pedro Tresvalles has recommended the filing of criminal charges against Flores. 

The KMP leader was arrested after his group clashed with protesters outside the President’s home on Times street.

Pagdilao said 12 police officers under the QCPD Station 2 were wounded in the scuffle as the protesters allegedly became unruly.

The scuffle erupted as police officers accosted the protesters.

The 12 policemen suffered injuries in the eyes, thighs, arms as well as bruises and fractures, the QCPD chief said.

He said the fiscal set for further investigation the cases filed against KMP members Pastor John Ver and Pastor Pio Mercado, who were not arrested during the incident.

Pagdilao said the protesters had been allowed to hold a program near Aquino’s home. However, some of them allegedly painted the street and the gate of a house in the area red, prompting policemen to disperse them.

The militant group condemned Flores’ arrest, saying it was illegal. The group claimed that police officers clubbed unarmed protesters with truncheons and sticks.

The protesters were demanding the ouster of Aquino. They were part of the Manilakbayan protest of Mindanao farmers and indigenous peoples in Manila to highlight the alleged increasing human rights violations and land-grabbing in Mindanao.