I Love Pinoys

MANILA, Philippines - Police secured the Mendiola Bridge near Malacañang and Plaza Miranda in Manila’s Quiapo district at noon Friday to prepare for a students’ protest action in the afternoon.

Radio dzBB reported that the Manila Police District (MPD) said it is ready to deal with the students, who were to hold their “Black Friday” rally starting 2 p.m.

Organizers led by the League of Filipino Students said they expect at least 5,000 students representing 30 schools to join the protest.

The student protesters said they were staging the massive rally to denounce the continuing price hikes of basic commodities, fare, petroleum, and even electricity.

Like other transport and labor groups, the youth protesters are also pushing for the scrapping of the Oil Deregulation Law and the Extended Value Added Tax (VAT) on petroleum.

“Ito ay laban sa pagtaas ng presyo ng bilihin, kawalan ng aksyon ng gobiyerno sa sunusund na pagtas ng presyo (This is a fight against high prices and government’s inaction),” an unidentified male protester told GMA News.

“Tingin namin ayaw nilang tanggalin sa VAT dahil dinadala nila ito sa pag-pa-pacute,” he protester added.

The protesters were set to converge along España Avenue in front of the University of Santo Tomas, before marching to Plaza Miranda in Quiapo where they would hold a program.

The group will then march toward Mendiola to converge with other youth protesters coming from other parts of Metro Manila.

As of this posting, GMA’s Dano Tingcungco said in a separate report said that students from the Philippine Christian University and Adamson University have begun massing along Salamangka Street in Makati City.

Students from the University of the Philippines and the Araullo University were also expected to join the rally later in the day, the television report added.

Manila police authorities were quoted in another television report as advising the youth protesters not to breach Mendiola, which is a no-rally zone except on holidays and weekends.

The rallyists should instead carry out the rally only up to Plaza Miranda or some other freedom parks in Metro Manila, the police said.

Authorities would observe maximum tolerance during the rally but asked the protesters to avoid taunting policemen or grabbing truncheons away from security forces. - Mark Merueñas, GMANews.TV