Filipinos protest Trump's presidency at US embassy in Manila

Hundreds of protesters, including Muslim activists, have staged a rally at the US embassy in Philippine capital of Manila against soon-to-be US President Donald Trump, censuring him as racist and xenophobic.

During the noisy Friday protest event, which came just hours before Trump is set to be inaugurated into office in Washington, the protesters also called on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to stick to his pledge of charting a foreign policy independent of Washington by keeping his distance from Trump, who they accused of sexism, racism and xenophobia.

The protesters also burned a US flag near its embassy and demanded an end to American military presence in the Philippines. They also carried placards slamming the next US president, including one that read, "Donald Trump don't mess with the Philippines."

The demonstrators insisted that they consider Trump more alarming than outgoing President Barack Obama due to his hateful and offensive remarks against immigrants and Muslims in general.

"Obama sugar-coated imperialism but Trump has shown an in-your-face kind of imperialism," one of the protest leaders, Renato Reyes, was quoted as saying in an AP report, underlining that Duterte "should stick to his independent foreign policy."

Chanting "dump Trump," the protesters also expressed concerns over what they referred to as the threat Trump poses to the millions of Filipino immigrants across the US.

"It is alarming to know that an accused sexual predator, a known racist, sexist, xenophobic man is assuming the presidency of the strongest capitalist country in the world," said Joms Salvador, secretary-general of women's group Gabriela, as quoted in an AFP report. 

"The decades of struggle of women across the world to fight for their rights is threatened by Trump's presidency," she added.

Although Duterte has harshly slammed Obama for interfering in the internal affairs of the Philippines by criticizing his crackdown on narcotics dealers, he has congratulated Trump in a phone conversation and dispatched his national security adviser and press secretary to attend his inauguration.

Bilateral ties between the two countries have soured under Duterte, a self-declared socialist who has shifted his nation's foreign policy towards China and Russia since taking office nearly seven months ago.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, a man chained himself to the gate of the US consulate on Friday to protest the upcoming Trump inauguration.

"Sometimes it feels like we are in 1933 or 1934 again," he reportedly said, noting that he was protesting because he wanted to be on the right side of history.

Police arrested the man after releasing him from a bike lock around his neck and a chain around his torso which he had used to attach himself to the exterior gate of the consulate. 

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