Protesters from Mindanao turn Mendiola into camping site

 

Members of indigenous groups from Mindanao and Southern Luzon held a protest march headed for Mendiola near Malacañang Monday and spent the night there.

 

A report on GMA News TV's "Balita Pilipinas Ngayon" said some of the protesters walked all the way from Mindanao and called for a stop to mining.

 

They also protested the presence of US soldiers, saying some members of indigenous groups were mistaken for New People's Army rebels.

 

The protesters plan to keep up their protests until Dec. 10.

 

An earlier report on GMA News TV's "News TV Live" on Tuesday morning said the protesters, who marched there from Baclaran, even used the barbed wire barricades to hang their clothes.

 

Messages on streamers and tarpaulins indicated their objection to the Philippine-US Visiting Forces Agreement and to foreign firms' mining in Mindanao.

 

On Monday, the protesters arrived near Mendiola, slowing down afternoon traffic in the area.

 

Many of them questioned what they called the entry of the military into schools in Mindanao.
 

PHOTO: Protesta laban sa pagpasok umano ng AFP sa mga paaralan sa Mindanao, patuloy sa Mendiola | via @VargasMannysen pic.twitter.com/4f7xaSSGT2

— DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) November 24, 2014

The protesters also claimed they will camp out in the area until President Benigno Aquino III listens to their concerns.
 

Mga demonstrador mula Mindanao at mga militante, magkakampo sa Mendiola hanggang pansinin ni PNoy ang hinaing @dzbb pic.twitter.com/Goep7WTNUM

— manny vargas (@VargasMannysen) November 24, 2014

The protesters set up a makeshift stage at Mendiola so they could hold a program. — Joel Locsin/VC, GMA News