Youth groups hit detention of protester

Militant youth groups cried foul Wednesday over the alleged harassment in the arrest and detention of a student leader who attended Tuesday's May Day rally. Youth groups led by the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and Kabataan Partylist staged a protest action in front of the Manila Police District headquarters in Manila Wednesday. Police arrested Ken Mark Ambay, 23, a member of the Kabataan party-list group, while he was walking behind his friends along Morayta Avenue after the Labor Day rally along C.M. Recto Avenue. A plainclothesman later identified to be from the Manila Police District grabbed and arrested him. "When I resisted, the policeman along with two others shoved me so I fell on my back. They stepped on my neck and waist as they tightly placed handcuffs on my wrists," recounted Ambay. Ambay's companions, also members of Kabataan party list, said the policemen who grabbed Ambay pointed guns at them as they approached Ambay to help him. When Ambay was brought to the Manila Police Station 4, he was charged with assaulting the policemen that arrested him, an act Ambay denied. "I could never have assaulted any policeman during the rally because it was a very peaceful demonstration. If I have hurt the ones that arrested me, I'm sorry but it was only natural for a person to resist when he is being grabbed and arrested for no reason," he said. Vencer Crisostomo, national chairman of the LFS and spokesman of Kabataan, described Ambay's arrest as "a display of police brutality and power tripping." "We joined the Labor Day rally to fight for our rights, not to become victims of the denial of these rights by the government through the Philippine National Police," said Crisostomo. The groups said they are planning to file complaints against the policemen who arrested Ambay, saying that they shall not tolerate such events to occur. - GMANews.TV