[Manila, Philippines] The Council for People’s Development and Governance (CPDG) strongly denounces the brutal dispersal of protesters in Mendiola and the ensuing police operations in nearby communities on 21 September 2025. The “maximum tolerance” claimed by the police was exposed as maximum intolerance, with brute force unleashed on protesters who were voicing outrage at the grave injustices they endure from corrupt government officials squandering trillions of taxpayers’ money.
The police responded with deliberate and disproportionate force, using violence against protesters as a show of power. This heavy-handed approach was meant to send a clear message: dissent will not be tolerated. The Marcos Jr. administration, through the Department of Justice and the police, seeks to intimidate citizens and impose limits on collective action against grand-scale corruption. These tactics are part of the calculated narrowing of civic space and erode the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
Authorities would have us believe that only “violent agitators” were arrested. But the numbers tell a different story: 216 protesters were hauled off by police amidst the chaos, including at least 91 minors. In Manila alone, police claimed 113 “rogue protesters” were arrested across Mendiola, Ayala Bridge, and Recto—sweeping round-ups that expose the lie of “maximum tolerance.” These figures reveal not order, but the state’s relentless appetite for suppression, with the possibility of more missing persons still unaccounted for.
Testimonies from detainees describe torture, beatings, and even being forced to inflict harm on one another—patterns of abuse also reported by the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL). Worse, construction worker Eric Saber—shot in the back while merely trying to cross the street—was killed in cold blood. His killers walk free under the shield of state violence. Responsibility must not stop at the rank-and-file. Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso, as the chief command over the Manila Police District, bears direct accountability for enabling this carnage against protesters, innocent bystanders, and even minors. His complicity is undeniable.
Police brutality was documented in countless photos and videos, courageously captured by photojournalists who themselves faced harassment. Frontline photographers Raffy Lerma and Ezra Acayan, who witnessed tear gas, water cannons, and violent dispersals, featured their firsthand accounts. GMA News reported how student, Matthew Villanueva, was beaten, dragged and kicked by arresting officers. Such evidence strips bare the lies of official reports and confirms the cruelty of the crackdown.
This violent police crackdown is no aberration; it is an open escalation in the regime’s war on dissent. The September 21 anti-corruption protests were part of a nationwide mobilization against graft in flood control projects, the abuse of “confidential” funds in Congress and government agencies, and the shameless impunity of those in power. By turning their guns on citizens demanding accountability, the state has once again shown whose interests it protects. Threats against detainees—warning them they may lose their jobs—lay bare the cruelty of a government that punishes the poor while shielding the plunderers.
CPDG demands justice for Eric Saber and all victims of police brutality. We call for the immediate release of jailed protesters and innocent individuals, the dropping of all fabricated charges, and the prosecution of every police officer, commander, and public official behind this atrocity—including the Mayor of Manila, who must be held accountable for the violence of the police under his command. The government must fulfill its duty to uphold and respect the human rights of all Filipinos–including economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights—without discrimination. Justice must be exacted not on the poor who demanded accountability, but on corrupt government officials guilty of plunder and betrayal of public trust. Only then can lives, livelihoods, and communities begin to heal from the unforgivable crimes of violence and corruption.@