KARAPATAN condemns the arrest by anti-riot police of six protesters at the Labor Day rally near the US Embassy. The arrests came in the wake of a statement from the Philippine National Police (PNP) that the rallies marking Labor Day were “peaceful.”
Said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, “The statement is ironic as it is practically an admission that the only disturbance came from the Philippine National Police when they breached the protesters’ ranks, tried to disperse them with water cannons and arbitrarily pulled protesters from the crowd, pinned them to the ground and arrested them.”
“This violent dispersal of a peaceful rally is a blatant transgression of the protesters’ rights to express themselves, peacably assemble and air their grievances,” stressed Palabay.
“The unjust complaints of illegal assembly, direct assault, disobedience and malicious mischief must be dismissed and the detained protesters immediately released,” concluded Palabay.#