A group of demonstrators (left) take to the streets against communist rebels and in support of the Duterte administration’s policies in downtown Cagayan de Oro. At right, a woman with another group of protesters shout slogans against the Duterte administration’s policies in time for the International Human Rights Day. (photos by Nitz Arancon)
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By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent .

THOUSANDS of pro- and anti-Duterte administration demonstrators simultaneously took to the streets as they marked the 70th International Human Rights Day here yesterday.

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Authorities however made it very difficult for activists with grievances against the Duterte administration to stage street protests in the city.

Movement Against Tyranny chairman Fr. Jong Abejo argues with a man whose group blocked demonstrators on their way to Camp Evangelista in Patag yesterday. (photo by Joey Nacalaban)

Iglesia Filipina Independiente priest Fr. Rolando Abejo, leader of the Movement Against Tyranny, complained that authorities repeatedly stopped protesters from Bukidnon to this city, and then took the children of demonstrators from Baloy, this city, to the City Social Welfare and Development Office.

Abejo’s group said protesters from central Mindanao were blocked at least five times since Sunday night. They said the first happened in Aglayan in Malaybalay City in Bukidnon; the second was in Patpat, also in Malaybalay.

They said they were again stopped when they reached Impasugong town and then in Damay, Manolo Fortich town in Bukidnon.

When they reached Cagayan de Oro yesterday morning, the protesters were stopped on the highway in Baloy in Barangay Tablon where, according to Fr. Abejo, police took the children of demonstrators and handed them over to social workers.

When they reached downtown Cagayan de Oro, they were greeted by pro-Duterte administration demonstrators at the capitol grounds.

The pro-Duterte demonstration was organized by the group Lumad Mindanao Movement for Peace and Development Inc. whose members marched from the Rodelsa Circle, Divisoria, and towards the park at capitol grounds via Don Apolinar Velez Street.

The group, led by one Armando Bravo, shouted pro-Mindanao martial law slogans, and decried the alleged abuses committed by New People’s Army rebels in the hinterlands. Bravo serves as the executive director of the group.

The lumad group also called on the Duterte administration to pursue its controversial “war on drugs.”

Bravo said the military was able to provide more protection to indigenes in outlying villages in Bukidnon as a result of President Duterte’s 2017 martial law declaration.

Bravo also called on NPA rebels to surrender to the government and put an end to the decades old communist insurgency in the country.

“We love peace,” he said.

But Bravo’s group did not stop the Movement Against Tyranny from calling for the lifting of martial law in Mindanao and for the resumption of the peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front.

Fr. Abejo said the Mindanao martial law has been abused and resulted in numerous human rights violations.

Abejo’s group moved around the city, staging pocket street demonstrations outside Camp Evangelista in Patag, Misamis Oriental Provincial Jail, outside city hall, and then, Divisoria.

At Camp Evangelista, they decried the alleged military abuses against indigenese, while they called for the release of political prisoners at the provincial jail.

“Nag-mobile lang kami kay wala man mihatagig lugar sa Divisoria sa among programa,” said Abejo.

Bravo said some 3,000 people participated in his group’s demonstrations. Fr. Abejo, for his part, said they had expected 5,000 participants but only 3,000 made it because authorities made it difficult for them to come to Cagayan de Oro.

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