v11n0203

Date of incident: 6 March 2008 at 8:45pm
Place of incident: In front of the office of the DoLE along Murallo
Street, Intramuros, Manila
AHRC-UAC-075-2008
At 3pm on 8 march 2008 about 500 protestors coming from
the Southern Tagalog Region, who had marched for the past four
days towards Manila City had arrived at the national office of
DoLE in Intramuros. The march, which they called Lakbayani, was
held to get attention to air the protestors’ grievances, particularly
the delays of labour cases pending before DoLE as well as other
concerned government agencies.
The march was led by groups mentioned above. Those who
joined the march were workers, urban poor, activists and others.
When the protestors arrived in front of DoLE’s office, former labour
secretary Arturo Brion did not show up to meet them for a dialogue
regarding their issues of concerns. Instead, the protestors held a
program in front of DoLE’s office purposely to air and have their
grievances heard. But at 7pm, two fire trucks from the Manila
Fire Station came positioning themselves close to the protestors.
upon seeing this, the protestors approached the policemen to
talk to them. They spoke with Colonel Viray requesting him to
allow their group to stay until the next day, march 7. The group
wanted to meet the labour secretary.
Colonel Viray, however, told them that he had to inform the
ground commander regarding their request to stay longer. By that
time though, about 20 policemen from the mPD, one of whom was
Police Chief Supt. Rogelio Rosales (a.k.a. Jojo), were seen coming
outside the DoLE office’s front door.
The group again approached P/Chief Supt. Rosales and Colonel
Viray requesting them to allow them continue their activities and
to stay there overnight. At 8:45pm Rosales ordered his policemen
to disperse the group. The firemen on two fires trucks suddenly
sprayed them with high pressure water cannons and followed by
policemen continuously beating them with clubs, truncheons and
shields. They continued in doing so despite the protestors already
running away from them towards nearby Liwasang Bonifacio.
One of the protestors, marlon Torres, fell on a cemented
pavement after he was beaten on the head. One of his colleagues
tried to rescue him after he fell and lost consciousness, the person
trying to rescue him was himself beaten. They struck him with
a shield and stepped hard on his feet while beating him. They
continued on beating him even as he bled and fell to the ground.
Another victim, nestor Villanueva, suffered cuts to his head
after he was hit by a truncheon. he suffered injuries to different
parts of his body after he was beaten by the policemen as he was
running away. Philip nardo collapsed after he was struck with
truncheon on the back of his head. he regained conciousness
after the police three him into their vehicle.
article 2 � June-Sept 2012 Vol. 11, No. 2-3
“
The march,
which they called
Lakbayani, was held
to get attention to
air the protestors’
grievances,
particularly the
delays of labour
cases.
”
97