About 20,000 to 25,000 people joined the commemoration of the International Humanitarian Law Day headed by the Philippine National Red Cross in Manila on Sunday.
PNRC chapters in Manila, Rizal and Laguna, walked with students from Polytechnic University of the Philippines, City Colleges of Manila, and Eulogio Amang Rodriguez College. The Philippine Army also sent a contingent of 588 active military personnel, reservists and ROTC cadets to lead the ‘Walk for Humanity” march.
From Port Area in Manila, the human rights supporters marched along Liwasang Bonifacio, to Roxas Boulevard and to Plaza Rajah Sulayman.
In a short program held at the Quirino Grandstand, Red Cross condemned the on-going armed conflict in North Cotabato.
Earlier, Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon said doctors and nurses fear going to the far-flung, possibly cholera-stricken town of Palimbang in Sultan Kudarat due to skirmishes in North Cotabato between the military, para-military forces and Muslim rebels.
"We now have 21 volunteers, including seven doctors and 11 nurses. The problem is that some doctors who want to go to the town feel that they are not secure because of the on-going tension," Gordon said on Friday.
Out of the 147 reported cases, 18 died from dehydration and 127 victims were hospitalized.
Gordon added that the villages in Palimbang are home mostly to the indigenous group Manobos.