Police chief pledges probe

Press, 12 July 1984, Page 6

Police chief pledges probe

NZPA-Reuter Manila The police would investigate assertions that workers had been killed during a clash with union pickets at a strike-bound factory in north Manila, the Philippines capital’s commander, Major-General Prospero Olivas, said. He had also ordered an inquiry into whether any policeman should be held responsible for any deaths and injuries to scores of other workers and bystanders.

Violence erupted at the garment factory on Monday when armed policemen moved in on picket lines set up in defiance of a court

injunction. About 100 police and strikers were injured, some seriously.

Task Force Detainees, a human rights group backed by the Catholic Church, said men on the picket line had asserted that four people had been killed.

The May First Movement trade union said, “Six strikers have already been reported killed, with four of them still floating on the river beside the factory.” Neither side offered evidence on casualties but May First said that several workers had been hit with gun-fire, dozens injured by truncheons, and scores arrested and taken to undisclosed places.