16 youth protesters arrested in Iligan City

At least 16 individuals were arrested in Iligan City after conducting protest action in Barangay Pala-o, Iligan City on Friday, Independence Day.

Initial information from Police Regional Office X chief Police Brigadier General Rolando Anduyan stated that the individuals are students from groups STAND-IIT and Iligan Youth Advocate.

Anduyan identified the leader of the group as a certain Franz Luigi Yaun. The protest was held in front of Iligan Medical Center College at 11 a.m.

Issues raised during the protest action were the students' apprehension against the controversial anti-terrorism bill and their calls for the conduct of mass testing amid COVID-19 threats.

Anduyan said police are already preparing the charges which will be filed against the individuals who are in Iligan City Police Station V for profiling.

A separate report by GMA News stringer Merlyn Manos said only 14 youth protesters were arrested by the police.

The report quoted a protester who eluded arrest as saying that they did not know why the policemen went after them.

The protester, identified as Febeto Putotan, said they had agreed to the police's request to conduct the protest rally for 10 minutes only. He said the policemen went after them even before the 10-minute period lapsed.

The Philippine National Police Public Information Office later quoted the Iligan police as saying all 16 students have already been released.

Of the 16 students, 13 were issued citation tickets for violation of social distancing and later fetched by their parents with a lawyer.

The other three were released without tickets after authorities found out they were not part of the group of protesters. --Anna Felicia Bajo/KBK/MDM, GMA News