An individual was arrested at an agricultural sector-led rally at the Mendiola area in Manila on Tuesday for alleged vandalism, according to the Manila Police District (MPD).
A photo shared by the MPD to the media showed the individual donning black clothes and a head covering as they spray-painted a word onto a support column of the Light Rail Transit Line 2 (LRT 2) at the intersection of Legarda Street and Recto Avenue.
‘Appropriate charges will be filed against the individual based on the offense committed,’ the police maintained.
The MPD did not name the individual arrested. However, sectoral groups Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and the Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND) condemned the arrest.
Both groups identified the arrested individual only as a ‘youth protester.’ ‘According to witnesses, after the protest had peacefully dispersed, police officers surrounded a jeep carrying youth, teachers, and community members on their way home,’ CONTEND claimed in a statement later on Tuesday.
‘Without presenting a warrant of arrest or stating any legal basis for their actions, the police forcibly took a youth protester into custody despite the objections and pleas of teachers and community members who were with him,’ it maintained.
Around 1,000 farmers and members of the agricultural and other sectors marched from the Liwasang Bonifacio to Mendiola to protest government corruption and call for agrarian reform to mark Peasant Month.