Over 50 TBS members nabbed in September 2025 Mendiola protest, says DILG
Youth protesters clash with anti-riot police at Mendiola in Manila during an anti-corruption rally marking the 53rd anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law on Sunday, September 21, 2025. The violent confrontation erupted after a group of demonstrators pelted police with rocks, while officers used tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd. Protesters demand accountability from those involved in the alleged multi-trillion-peso corruption cases in government projects. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News MANILA — More than 50 members of the True Brown Style gang were among the 200 arrested during the September 21, 2025 protest in Manila, according to Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla.
Remulla said the figure was based on the government’s investigation into those arrested during the protest.
“Through intelligence networks natin. Tiningnan namin ang buong hierarchy ng TBS Manila, nakita namin na kasama talaga sila roon,” Remulla said Wednesday.
(We looked at the hierarchy of TBS Manila and we saw they were really part of it.)
He said the arrests show “the function” of TBS, adding not all members are “bad” but that “we have to reach out, reform, re-educate them how to be productive members of society.”
Police in 2025 claimed that there were “hip-hop gangsters” involved in violence at the end of the September 21 protests against corruption in flood-control projects.
Lawyer Maria Sol Taule, deputy secretary-general of rights group Karapatan and who gave legal assistance to some of those arrested in the September 2025 protests, told ABS-CBN News on Tuesday that police have been seen to “target” youths at protests who are in black or who they think might be in gangs.
She said the observation was “based on the trends of arrests since September 21, 2025.”
The DILG chief also reported that authorities arrested 13 more TBS members for various offenses on Monday.
“Everything from drugs, illegal possession of deadly weapons, meron mang theft,” he said.
He also implied that community service activities by TBS members are funded by crime.
“TBS is a force of chaos now, but they can be a force of good kung magbago sila (if they reform),” he added.
Remulla had previously described TBS as a group that originated in California in the United States and later expanded in the Philippines.
According to the DILG chief, the group has evolved from a small organization into what he described as a criminal syndicate, with members mostly in their late teens and early 20s.
He claimed the group recruits children as young as 14 or 15 years old and allegedly requires them to rob stores as part of initiation rites.
The DILG has been monitoring social media threats and pursuing community-based gangs amid concerns over the recruitment of minors.
The department said authorities earlier arrested 53 individuals allegedly involved in gangs accused of grooming children to incite violence in schools following the Zamboanga incident.
“This campaign will go on, it will not stop. We will work with the DepEd, we will work with the communities to make sure that the path forward is a safer environment for our children,” Remulla said in a separate interview.
Despite the crackdown, Remulla said he remains open to dialogue with TBS members and plans to meet with members of the group in Cavite next week to explain the government’s policy. — with a report from Jonathan de Santos, ABS-CBN News