5 students hurt in violent dispersal of protest outside DepEd

Five student protesters were hurt after they clashed with security guards of the Department of Education (DepEd) main office in Pasig on Friday morning, a television report said. A group of about 50 high school students belong to militant groups League of Filipino Students (LFS) and Anakbayan were forcibly dispersed by security guards after they tried to make their way inside the DepEd office to have a dialogue with Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro on “unnecessary school fees," GMA News’ Chino Gaston reported on “24 Oras."
The students, identified as Ivan Bontorostro, Mack Gamido, Ronald Santos, Raymond Ubero and James Analjao, suffered various injuries when guards reportedly clubbed them and hit them with hand-held radios during the dispersal. “Hindi ko po alam kung pinalo po ako ng arnis o sinuntok po. Pagkatalikod ko po, bigla akong sinikmuraan. ‘Yung mga kapwa ko po estudyante, tinutukan po ng baril," Bontorostro said in a television interview. (I can’t say if I was struck by an arnis stick or a hand blow. As I turned my back, I was hit on the stomach. My fellow students had guns pointed at them.) The injured students were brought to the Rizal Medical Center in Pasig City for treatment, the report said. The protesters plan to file complaints against the security guards, according to the report. DepEd Undersecretary Alberto Muyot meanwhile said that the department will investigate the incident to determine if its personnel violated the protesters’ rights. “If this will prove to be a violation of children’s rights, then definitely, we will hold them [guards] accountable," he said in a separate television interview. He added that DepEd has no plans to ban protests outside its main office despite the violent incident.—Andreo C. Calonzo/JV, GMANews.TV