News
 NPA launches tactical offensives in the Cordillera and Mindanao
Reyd in Kalinga. Red fighters took advantage of strong rains to attack a Philippine Army detachment at around 6 a.m. of August 25 in Barangay Balantoy, Balbalan. A CAFGU element was killed and five others were wounded.
The NPA's blocking force ambushed a composite group of Philippine Army and police troops sent as reinforcements in Sitio Butod. Three policemen were wounded, including the officer in charge of the Balbalan police station.
Disarming operations in Mindanao. Seven Red fighters attacked a guard outpost of the MD Rio Vesta Agri Venture Plantation in Barangay Pangi, Maco, Compostela Valley on August 25. They disarmed three security guards of a shotgun, two .38 pistols, a grenade and a communications radio.
Two days later, a group of Red fighters seized a .45 pistol from PO1 Ruel Carrido while he was discoing in Mati, Davao Oriental on the night of August 27.
Protests greet Bush�s nomination
DAILY protests battered the Republican Party national convention held in New York City from August 29 to September 3. The convention formally proclaimed George W. Bush as the Republican Party's official candidate in the US presidential election on November 2. Cries of "No more years!" reverberated in the streets as Bush accepted his nomination.
The United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) led hundreds of thousands of protesters. The group opposes the US' war of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq. The total mobilization came to 500,000 based on conservative estimates of the number of people who joined mass actions that began on August 28 and ended on September 3.
 On August 28, up to 15,000 activists kicked off the protests with a rally assailing Bush's antiabortion policy. As the convention opened on August 29, protesters led by Michael Moore, the well-known director of the documentary film "Fahrenheit 9-11" and the Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Democratic Party launched a march that stretched over two miles. The 400,000-strong march lasted over two hours. Among the marchers were 1,000 people carrying flag-draped coffins symbolizing American soldiers killed in Iraq. According to the Pentagon, 975 US soldiers have been killed in action and 6,916 have been wounded in Iraq since March 2003.
On September 1, demonstrators staged a three-mile long symbolic line of the unemployed. Protest organizers said three million jobs have been lost since 2000, with the situation turning for the worse when the Bush government launched its war on Iraq. Meanwhile, 45 million Americans do not have any healthcare coverage.
The protesters likewise criticized the government for its lack of funds for social welfare such as pensions and assistance for AIDS patients, among others. They also called for support for the struggle of the Palestinian people and the rights of immigrants and gays, and an end to the conflict in the Sudan.
The government deployed some 10,000 local police personnel, aside from SWAT teams, federal and state security forces and attack dogs in a desperate bid to stop the legitimate protests. Over 1,800 persons were illegally arrested and detained, exceeding the previous record set in protests during the Democratic Party�s Chicago Convention in 1968, where 589 demonstrators were arrested.
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