Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Philippine National Police Brutally Repress Protestors in front of US Embassy

On October 19th 2016 the Philippine National Police (PNP) drove a police truck over people protesting US imperialism in front of the US Embassy.

Chelsea Carl

November 2, 2016
Facebook Twitter Share

Image from Yahoo News

On October 19th 2016 the Philippine National Police (PNP) drove a police truck over people protesting US imperialism in front of the US Embassy. They ran over the protestors not once, not twice, but three times. The scene is captured in this brutal video:

WARNING: Violent Images

The protest in which this police violence took place was one of the many events that occurred during Lakbayan ng Pambansang Minorya—a 2-week gathering of National Minorities consisting of Moro and Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines. The gathering is meant to help form stronger alliances and shed light on indigenous people´s struggle against the capitalist plunder of their ancestral domains. For example, the Dulangan Manobo tribe in Sultan Kudarat have been facing military harassment enforced by the land grabber Victor Consunji. Consunji has been trying to displace the tribe to deforrest their land for timber. Members of the tribe have continuously found leaders of their tribe murdered in ditches and their homes were occupied by corporate militias last year.

At this protest, national minorities and other protectors of Philippine sovereignty protested outside of the US Embassy to demand the removal of US military presence in the Philippines. Through the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) unlimited numbers of US military troops can stay on Philippines military bases for as long as they want. Agreements like EDCA allow the US to oversee the Philippine military and maintain a large imperial presence in the region. Meanwhile US military personnel continue to abuse Filipino people, such as the murder of trans woman Jennifer Laude by US Private Joseph Scott Pemberton.

The protesters in front of the Embassy were assaulted by water cannons and physically harassed by the PNP (the national police). Toward the end of the program the protesters were teargassed as the PNP blasted “Silent Night” and other Christmas carols to drown out their screaming. At this point Franklin Kho of the PNP got into a police truck and drove the vehicle in to the protesters, backed into more protestors, and charged the truck forward again rolling over several protesters. No protesters were killed but many were injured. The police falsely claim that the protestors were the first to use violence against the PNP, but the protest was peaceful. The PNP also claim that the protesters were attempting to tip over the police truck but it is clear from video recordings this was not the case.

2016 marks the 16th year of the Philippine Exchange Training (PET) program, a joint training program between the PNP and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police. The Bay Area Rapid Transit police who shot and murdered Oscar Grant underwent the same training received by the Philippine National Police who ran over protestors.

PET is only one example of US involvement in Filipino affairs. The US continues to support police repression against working class peoples’ within US borders and abroad. Since the US bought the Philippines for $20 million from Spain—the former colonizers of the Philippines—after the Spanish-American war, the US has enforced control over the land, resources, and people of the Philippines. The Philippine government has acted as the complicit puppet of the US.

This US trained police force is the same type of police force that murders Black people in the US with impunity and represses protestors at Standing Rock. The police in the Philippines serve the same capitalist interests as those who seek to poison the water of the Sioux tribe at Standing Rock. Corporate attacks on indigenous people are global and so our resistance must be as well.

Chelsea Carl is a guest contributor to Left Voice. She is a member of Anakbayan East Bay.

Facebook Twitter Share

Asia-Pacific

China’s Rise, ‘Diminished Dependency,’ and Imperialism in Times of World Disorder

In this broad-ranging interview, originally published in LINKS, Trotskyist Fraction member Esteban Mercatante discusses how recent global shifts in processes of capital accumulation have contributed to China’s rise, the new (and old) mechanisms big powers use to plunder the Global South, and its implications for anti-imperialist and working-class struggles today.

Esteban Mercatante

September 22, 2023

Strike for Wages at Chevron-Australia Could Hit 5 Percent of Global Gas Production

Chevron workers in Western Australia are escalating a strike at two of the world's largest gas facilities. They are demanding wage rises and better working conditions.

Arthur Nicola

September 14, 2023

The Roots of the Rebellion at Foxconn

Jenny Chan is a researcher and professor at the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong. She is co-author of the book Dying for an iPhone. She spoke with La Izquerda Diario about the causes of the rebellion by workers at the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou, China.

Josefina L. Martínez

December 7, 2022
Participants in a memorial ceremony lay flowers to pay respect to a deceased 23-year-old worker in front of the SPC headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. She died in an accident at a baking factory in Pyeongtaek affiliated with SPC on Saturday.

How Workers and Socialists are Responding to a Workplace Death at One of South Korea’s Largest Food Manufacturers

Following a workplace death at SPC group, one of the largest food manufacturers in South Korea, a consumer boycott quickly gained traction. Organized workers and revolutionary socialists are playing a role in this struggle.

Samuel Karlin

November 12, 2022

MOST RECENT

A square in Argentina is full of protesters holding red banners

48 Years After the Military Coup, Tens of Thousands in Argentina Take to the Streets Against Denialism and the Far Right

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Argentina on March 24 to demand justice for the victims of the state and the military dictatorship of 1976. This year, the annual march had renewed significance, defying the far-right government’s denialism and attacks against the working class and poor.

Madeleine Freeman

March 25, 2024

The Convulsive Interregnum of the International Situation

The capitalist world is in a "permacrisis" — a prolonged period of instability which may lead to catastrophic events. The ongoing struggles for hegemony could lead to open military conflicts.

Claudia Cinatti

March 22, 2024

Berlin’s Mayor Loves Antisemites

Kai Wegner denounces the “antisemitism” of left-wing Jews — while he embraces the most high-profile antisemitic conspiracy theorist in the world.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 22, 2024

What “The Daily” Gets Right and Wrong about Oregon’s Move to Recriminalize Drugs

A doctor at an overdose-prevention center responds to The Daily, a podcast produced by the New York Times, on the recriminalization of drugs in Oregon. What are the true causes of the addiction crisis, and how can we solve it?

Mike Pappas

March 22, 2024