“THIS IS ENOUGH”
“It’s very rare for me to go to rallies, but this situation was bad enough that I was really urged to say ‘this is enough’,” Mitzi Bajet, a 30-year-old designer, told AFP at the EDSA protest.
Teddy Casino, 56, chairman of left-wing alliance Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, said his group was demanding not only the return of stolen funds, but also prison time for those involved.
“Corruption requires people to go to the streets and express their outrage in the hope of pressuring government to actually do their jobs,” he said.
Renato Reyes, another organiser of the first protest, later said he had been hit in the face with a rock as he tried to leave an area near the presidential palace.
“They could be provocateurs or they could just be really angry at what is happening,” he said of the masked protesters, adding the government could not “ignore the problem of corruption”.
Some of those at the clashes could be seen holding aloft the pirate flag seen at recent Indonesian protests sparked by low wages, unemployment and anger over lavish lawmaker perks that left at least 10 dead.
An AFP journalist at the scene witnessed police throwing rocks back towards protesters, something Asilo, the spokeswoman, denied.
