Philippine police suppress Occupy rally

The demonstrators, including students and workers, marched towards Manila's Mendiola Bridge on Wednesday before facing the police's water cannons and baton charges.

Several people were hurt during clashes, which broke out near the presidential palace between the security forces and the protesting public. Police laid at least five protesters under arrest.

The rally was the second one of its type in two days.

The protesters say they are "fed up with the rotten system" of the government and want to camp out near the bridge in a protest action similar to the anti-corporatism 'Occupy' movement in the United States and many European countries.

The movement emerged after a group of demonstrators gathered in Wall Street in New York's on September 17 to protest, among other things, against the excessive influence of big corporations on the US policies as well as the high-level corruption and the unjust distribution of wealth in the country.

The campaign lives on across the country, defying crackdown and mass arrests by the US police.