More than 200 arrested after anticorruption protests in Philippines | Protests News

Hundreds attended rallies in Manila over a corruption scandal linked to ghost flood management tasks that value taxpayers billions of {dollars}.

Greater than 200 individuals have been arrested following clashes between police and masked protesters at an anticorruption demonstration within the Philippine capital, Manila.

In a press release on Monday morning, the regional police mentioned whereas most rallies the day earlier than had been peaceable, the gathering in Ayala Bridge and Mendiola “though unprovoked, turned very violent”.

“Protesters turned mobs assaulted law enforcement officials with stones and something they may get their fingers on. Not glad with harming law enforcement officials in uniform, violent protesters set bikes on fireplace, vandalised and ransacked a enterprise institution,” the assertion learn.

It added that police arrested 224 suspects, a few of whom had been minors.

At the least 131 officers had been wounded within the clashes, a few of whom had been “very critical”, however at the moment are receiving medical therapy.

Reporting from Manila, Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Lo defined that whereas some sense of normalcy returned to the streets of Manila on Monday morning, “there’s a heavier police presence than standard”.

“Colleges are closed, a curfew for minors has been imposed as investigations into alleged corruption in flood management tasks proceed, extra protests are anticipated, and at this level they may very well be unpredictable,” Lo mentioned.

On Sunday, 1000’s attended rallies in Manila over a corruption scandal linked to ghost flood management tasks that value taxpayers billions of {dollars}.

Whereas the protest was primarily peaceable, with greater than 33,000 rallying in a historic park and a democracy monument in Manila, some took a unique route.

Police mentioned they used tear gasoline to disperse those that sprayed graffiti on partitions, toppled metal posts, shattered glass panels and ransacked the foyer of a funds inn alongside a well-liked street.

Regional police spokesperson Main Hazel Asilo instructed the AFP information company that none of these arrested has to date shared their reasoning or if “anyone paid them to do it”.

“As quickly as we all know their affiliations, we will know in the event that they had been a part of the protesters or in the event that they had been simply inflicting bother,” Asilo added.

Earlier, protests erupted in different Asian international locations, together with Indonesia and Nepal, in latest weeks over authorities conduct and corruption.

For Filipinos, anger within the nation had been mounting since July after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr uncovered the ghost infrastructure tasks throughout a state-of-the-nation handle.

“I really feel unhealthy that we wallow in poverty and we lose our properties, our lives and our future whereas they rake in a giant fortune from our taxes that pay for his or her luxurious automobiles, overseas journeys and greater company transactions,” pupil activist Althea Trinidad instructed The Related Press information company.

In line with the Division of Finance, the Philippine financial system is estimated to have misplaced as much as 118.5 billion pesos ($2bn) from 2023 to 2025 as a result of corruption in flood management tasks.