THE Gabriela Women’s Party on Tuesday blasted the police for using a sonic weapon that generated an earsplitting sound against protesters who denounced US President Donald Trump’s visit at their rally Monday.
Reps. Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas said the deployment and use of the Long Range Acoustic Device at the rally constituted a new level of state violence as there was an intent to harm the protesters during the skirmish along Taft Avenue.
“The latest anti-people weapon of the PNP must be probed and opposed,” Brosas said, noting that patients at the nearby government-run Philippine General Hospital might have also been affected.
Meanwhile, hundreds of activists belonging to militant groups Sanlakas, Bukluran ng Manggawang Pilipino, Partido Lakas ng Masa and Piglas Kababaihan on Tuesday braved the tight security blockade from Metro Manila to Clark, Pampanga, where the East Asian Summit was taking place.
The groups organized a caravan from Quezon City to Clark to denounce the continued US intervention in the region as manifested in its arms-dealing among ally countries, including the Philippines, to further its War of Terror.
“Trump in the picture means trouble for countries in Southeast Asia,” said BMP National President Leody de Guzman.
“The US is painting North Korea as the bogeyman in the region and China being an emerging miltary threat to justify enhanced security arrangements that would necessitate continued US troop presence and movements in Asean. Far from securing peace, this would escalate existing tensions in the region as US rhetoric lean toward military solutions. Asean governments adhering to US interests is kowtowing to US hegemony,” said De Guzman.
Brosas said several reports had indicated the sonic weapon could have varied effects on the human body, including hearing trauma, permanent hearing loss and lingering headaches.
“How much taxpayers’ money did the PNP utilize for this weapon and how many LRAD are being kept at their arsenal? The public must know,” Brosas said, adding they would file a resolution next week to appeal to the House leadership to look into the incident.
At least 56 were injured, four of which were brought to the hospital, during the violent dispersal along Taft Avenue.
Police also used water cannons several times against the protesters, the Gabriela party-list group said.
De Jesus, for her part, said blasting sound cannon to a democratic protest showed the “desperation” of the Duterte administration in handling the wrath of some sectors against his administration.
“PNP’s use of the sonic weapon brings the Duterte regime’s violence to a whole new level, and highlights the country’s puppetry, with LRAD manufactured in America for the defense of US President Trump..,” De Jesus said.
“It is a desperate attempt to drown the legitimate calls of women and the people for the pullout of US troops and junking of one-sided trade and military agreements.,” she added.
The LRAD was first used in Pittsburgh, USA by the police to disperse protesters opposing the agenda of the G20 Summit.
Trump went on a five-nation tour with the Philippines as his last stop. His Asian tour highlighted trade and security matters.
“Trump is not welcome in the Philippines! War-mongering is not in the interest of the peoples of a developing country like ours who wage daily wars against the evils of jobless growth, low wages, precarious work, poverty, hunger, envrionmental pillage, climate change, and many more,” said Sanlakas secretary-general Aaron Pedrosa.
“Ordinary Filipinos already have to contend with the lack of representation of their democratic interests in Asean processes, with the Asean’s legacy of 50 years being a farce for failing to be meaningful to the lives of the masses, they are now confronted with the unholy trinity between a fascist President, on the one hand, and the unfolding collusion between US and Japan, on the other, with the latter forcing its military and economic will on the Philippines in a frenzy to contain the growing influence of China,” said Pedrosa.
“We will not allow ourselves to be peons to any foreign interests. As the US continues to impose its imperialist agenda, our task is to resist!,” Pedrosa said..