APEC Fallout: PNP filing charges vs protesters

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Hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation by the Philippines is all over now, yet the fallout and bad taste from the event will stay behind.

For instance, anti-APEC protesters are the next point of interest of the Philippine National Police after having been done with the dragnet security in the metroplis.

According to spokesman Chief Superintendent Wilben Mayor, the PNP will file charges against a group of protesters who were able to march toward the venues for the APEC Leaders’ Meeting.

“Some of our policemen were injured despite their adherence to the maximum tolerance policy and they were still provoked. (These) people caused injuries and harm to our people. Definitely, it is just right to file legal charges against them,” he told reporters during a press briefing at the International Media Center at the World Trade Center in Pasay City on Thursday.

He also defended the use of water cannons to “cool down” protesters.

Protesters on Thursday morning were able to march on Buendia and Roxas Boulevard near the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), where the APEC leaders were meeting.

But the police elements stopped the protesters from going near the PICC and the World Trade Center, where the International Media Center is located, by firing water cannons at the group.

Bayan Muna was protesting the presence of heads of states including US President Barack Obama, the gridlock caused by holding the APEC Summit in Manila that bothered ordinary citizens, whose economic activities were all halted because of road closures around the metro.

Mayor declined to identify the groups behind the protests, but said they would be named after the situation calms down.

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