Three injured in port project clash

Three injured in port project clash

MANILA (AFP): At least three people were injured yesterday as squatters fought a demolition crew assigned to remove them from a Japanese-funded 1.5 billion-peso (US$56 million) Philippines port project, police said.

Improvised arrows, stones and bottles forced back the wrecking crew from the site in Batangas City. The authorities are now conducting negotiations with the protest leaders, senior police officer Felicisimo Delgado told AFP by telephone.

The injured were all members of the demolition crew, he added. Construction of the project, programmed to be operational in October 1996, was originally scheduled to start last month. But timetables have been disrupted by the presence of nearly 1,500 squatter families.

Manila has shelled out 800 million pesos to provide a resettlement area for the squatters, but only 354 families have left, sources familiar with the project said.