MANILA, July 22: Dozens were injured and at least three were arrested Monday when Philippine police clashed with thousands of protesters outside Congress as President Gloria Arroyo delivered her annual state of the nation address.

Riot police armed with truncheons and batons charged protesters assembled on a highway near the legislature after the crowd burned a giant Arroyo effigy, removed steel barricades and tried to advance to the House of Representatives.

Dozens of protesters were seen bloodied after absorbing blows to the body and head, while at least three protesters were arrested for throwing rocks at riot police. In her speech Arroyo vowed to get tough on crime and corruption, addressing the most urgent concerns of investors and the Philippine public.

Arroyo said this would help her create more jobs to fight poverty in this Southeast Asian nation of 80 million — where 32 million are children or minors and where 36 million make do on two dollars or less a day.

“We need investments to generate jobs, and to draw in investments, we will address certain problems in the short term: corruption, peace and order, and the cost of power,” she said in her state of the nation address before Congress.

She ordered the justice department to prosecute an unnamed government lawyer she accused of harassing and driving the US consumer products manufacturing concern Kimberly-Clark into relocating its Asian operations to Thailand.—AFP