Protesters who stormed the gates of the Batasang Pambansa Thursday said they will file charges against the Quezon City Police District and the Security Office of the House of Representatives for “brutal dispersal" of their rally.
Leaders of KILOS NA LABAN SA BUDGET CUTS alliance KILOS NA — composed of youth, student, teacher, health worker, migrant, and urban poor groups — as well as Anakbayan, said they will bring their case to the Commission on Human Rights.
Security personnel used bursts of water from fire hoses to keep the protesters off the Batasan gates.
Anakbayan national chairperson Vencer Crisostomo said “some of the participants held on to the gates to keep them open as a symbolic gesture of openness in the part of the House," adding that “[t]o prevent any untoward incident, none entered the Congress premises and merely sought to keep the gates open."
According to Anakbayan, five persons were seriously injured, including two members of Anakbayan’s National Executive Committee.
Anakbayan said national treasurer John Francis Losaria was “hit by a stone thrown by a cop" and while national education officer Edward Pastor was supposedly “repeatedly hit by truncheons after he sought to separate and calm down the scuffling protesters and police."
Both are currently receiving treatment at the East Avenue Medical Center.
Protesting budget cuts
The protesters trooped to the Batasan to call on lawmakers “to reject the proposed 2012 national budget on the grounds that it contains both cuts and insufficient allocations for basic social services."
They lamented that following “last year’s P1 billion budget cut to 97 State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), 50 SUCs will face a P500 million slash for 2012. “
They also noted that “the proposed budget contains huge funds for the so-called ‘presidential pork barrel’, or the intelligence funds of the Office of the President, from P65 billion to P161 billion."
However, the Ankabayan figures could not be reconciled with a recent report that the Office of the President is requesting for a P600 million intelligence fund.
‘Heated’ budget debate ‘ended well’
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Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Thursday morning’s House budget hearings eventually “ended well" despite the “heated" debate on recent acquisitions of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO), adding that administration officials came prepared and proved that there were no irregularities in any of their transactions.
“I understand it was a bit heated but later on everything cooled down and the parties were all satisfied. In fact, Congressman Rufus Rodriguez concluded that there was nothing illegal about the procurement process. So, well, all’s well that ends well," Lacierda said.
In a tense exchange over PCDSPO’s recent procurement of Macbook laptops and Blackberry phones, Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsaysay scolded PCDSPO Secretary Ramon Carandang for his allegedly arrogant remarks during the budget deliberations. The Malacañang official later apologized. — MRT/ELR/VS
