Philippine police deployed Katy Perry pop songs to disperse protesters at an Asia-Pacific leaders’ summit yesterday, enraging some demonstrators, but amusing others.
Hundreds of left-wing protesters rallied outside a venue where US President Barack Obama and other leaders of the 21-member APEC group were meeting.
The rally edged toward violence when protesters tried to break through lines of police, who were carrying riot shields and wooden batons, to reach the summit venue.
Photo: AFP
Police responded by firing water cannons and scuffled with protesters who were chanting: “Junk APEC.”
Then police pulled out their secret weapon: pop princess Katy Perry on giant loudspeakers.
Perry’s hit song Roar was played at full volume, the top of a demonstration disco playlist aimed at distracting the protesters and drowning out their chants.
Dolly Parton’s Islands In The Stream, David Guetta’s Sexy Bitch and the Bee Gees’ How Deep Is Your Love were among the other songs deployed against the protesters.
To add a street bass beat, some of the police tapped their batons against their shields in time with the music.
“It’s ridiculous,” leftist member of parliament Carlos Isagani Zarate said, as the protesters retreated to soul classic My Girl.
Many other protesters expressed anger at authorities trying to suppress their message of opposition to globalization and free-trade policies championed by APEC.
“We just want to make our voices heard,” 64-year-old mango farmer Candelario Rusasena said.
Others could not hide their amusement.
“That was a rude and desperate move,” 54-year-old rice farmer Redo Pena said as he broke into a toothless grin.
Metro Manila police spokeswoman Chief Inspector Kimberly Gonzales said the music was aimed at de-escalating tensions.
“Filipinos in general love music and it has a calming effect for everyone. This goes well with our maximum tolerance policy during protests,” Gonzales said.
The Philippines has a famous music culture, with karaoke one of the most popular forms of entertainment across all sectors of society.
It is not uncommon for tourists to encounter taxi drivers, supermarket cashiers and airport security staff spontaneously breaking out into song.
Philippine musicians are also a staple of hotel and cruise ship bands around the world.
And prisoners at the main jail in Cebu, the Philippines’ biggest city, have become an Internet sensation by posting videos on YouTube of them dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
Gonzales said using music at protests was not an unusual tactic, and there was no intent to trivialize yesterday’s rally.
“We understand the seriousness of the issues. We do not mean to insult people,” she said.
The protests occurred as Philippine President Benigno Aquino III was welcoming Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and other leaders for the summit’s second and final day.
The protesters said they opposed APEC’s free-trade agenda because it favored big corporations and neglected the poor.
“Aquino should protect his people, globalization has caused the prices of our goods to go down. We barely break even,” 47-year-old rice farmer Nida Floresca said. “We don’t even have irrigation to water our crops. Aquino should think of us first.”
Floresca came with several neighbors from their farming town in La Union, about 300km north of Manila. They marched in sandals and straw hats.
One police officer estimated the crowd of protesters at about 2,000, although there were no official numbers given.
More than 20,000 police and soldiers were deployed this week to ensure security during the APEC summit.
Philippine authorities said they had already been planning the nation’s biggest ever security operation for the meeting, which was ratcheted up even higher after last week’s deadly terrorist attacks in Paris.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of