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.