Manila, Oct 28 — Nearly one hundred women demonstrated in front of the United States embassy in Manila on Friday to demand that the U.S. government withdraw its troops and allow the Philippines government to pursue its own domestic and foreign policies, according to police.

Authorities had put up roadblocks in anticipation of the protest, organized through social media channels by the Gabriela Women’s Party on the 33rd annual National Day of Women’s Protest, Metro Manila police told epa.

“The call for the recognition of rights and self determination for our national minorities cannot be separated from the call to end the U.S. military and economic intervention in the country,” the Gabriela Women’s Party spokeswoman Arlene Brosas declared in a statement.

Supporters brandished signs reading “Rise against U.S. imperialism” and called for solidarity among women and national minorities, who they said have suffered at the hands of multinationals and foreign soldiers.

The women’s calls today echo inflammatory statements made in earlier speeches by President Rodrigo Duterte, who since taking office in June has repeatedly demanded the U.S. leave the Philippines as the country pursues its own independent goals.

Washington responded to the remarks by sending Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel on a visit to the Southeast Asian country last week, when he demanded the Philippines adopt a coherent and consistent diplomatic stance.

Since 1952, the United States and the Philippines have had a Mutual Defense Treaty, and in 2014 signed an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement that allows the United States to freely rotate troops through military bases in the country.

But the swell of nationalistic public sentiment under the tenure of Duterte, who has blamed the U.S. over the late 19th century American invasion of the Philippines, has stirred up long-held resentment with growing demands for change.

In 1899, the U.S. seized the former Spanish colony and attempted to quash Filipino nationalists until 1902, by which time more than 20,000 Filipino fighters had died alongside 200,000 civilians in what the U.S. Department of State has called brutal battles that led to epidemics and agricultural catastrophes across the country.

“Women have had enough of U.S. dictates and military presence in the Philippines, and we are not afraid to break free from this decades-long relationship of abuse. We fully support a policy that is independent of U.S. dictates,” said Brosas, who also insisted that the U.S. military presence has fuelled sex work and trafficking.

International women’s advocacy group Equality Now attributes the exploitation of up to 400,000 women in the commercial sex industry in the Philippines to the presence of American soldiers, who it says have entrenched and continue to fuel the trade. EFE