A Philippine police van rammed into protesters, leaving several bloodied, as an anti-US rally turned violent on Wednesday, at the American Embassy in Manila.
The van's driver, police officer Franklin Kho, told reporters he did not deliberately hit the protesters but was trying to drive away from them because they were hitting the vehicle with wooden clubs and he feared they would commandeer it and use it to attack other policemen. "They were already trying to seize the vehicle," Kho told reporters.
Video footage however showed the van repeatedly ramming the protesters as it drove wildly back and forth after activists surrounded and started hitting it with the wooden batons they seized from police.
At least three student activists were taken to a hospital after they were run over by the van, protest leader Renato Reyes said.
“There was absolutely no justification for it,” Reyes said of the violent police dispersal of about 1,000 protesters. “Even as the president vowed an independent foreign policy, Philippine police forces still act as running dogs of the US.”
In front of horrified crowds, the van suddenly charged backward then sprinted forward twice over a space of about 20 metres, barreling through the scattered protesters and hurtling some to the side like bowling pins. A few were run over but somehow managed to stand.
More than two dozen policemen were injured, police officials said, adding that police observed "maximum tolerance" but rowdy protesters kept assaulting the law enforcers.
Police lobbed tear gas and arrested at least 29 protesters who broke through a line of riot police and hurled red paint at the officers and a US government seal at the start of the rally at the seaside embassy compound.
The national police said in a statement that the violent dispersal was "unfortunate" and an investigation would try to determine if the riot policemen followed crowd-control procedures. Investigators will also evaluate criminal and civil liabilities of the protesters and their leader for an alleged illegal mass assembly.
The protesters, consisting of students, workers and tribespeople, were demanding an end to the presence of visiting US troops in the Philippines and to support a call by President Rodrigo Duterte for a foreign policy not dependent on the US, the country's longtime treaty ally.
The violence happened as the police and Duterte are under increased international scrutiny for their alleged role in the killings of thousands of drug suspects and pushers as part of the president's war on illegal drugs.
(With inputs from AP)
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