Strike Protesting Filipino Gas Prices Turns Violent

Police opened fire on protesters today and demonstrators hurled homemade grenades in the first general strike against President Corazon Aquino’s 18-month-old government, witnesses and the military said. Six people were injured.

Strikers stoned vehicles and scuffled with commuters and non-participants and police used water cannons to disperse crowds blocking streets during the one-day strike to protest gasoline price increases. More than 100 people were arrested.

Although organizers of the “day of national indignation” said up to 2 million workers participated in the strike, many shops and offices remained open.

Witnesses and one of the injured said police fired into a 5,000-strong crowd of protesters blocking the coastal highway near Bacoor, 10 miles south of Manila.

But the military said the injured were victims of “pillbox bombs,” or homemade grenades packed with iron shards and nails hurled by the protesters.

A military spokesman said four civilians and two police officers were injured in the violence.

In Manila, about 6,000 protesters carrying signs denouncing Aquino as an “American puppet” rallied two blocks from the presidential palace to demand a complete rollback of an increase in gasoline prices imposed Aug. 14.

Aquino Tuesday rolled back more than half of the 15% hike in prices in an effort to head off the first general strike since she assumed power in February, 1986. (Story, Page 6.)