Groups stage protest at Camp Crame over ‘tambay’ crackdown
Different groups protested in front of the Philippine National Police headquarters, smearing the gates of Camp Crame in Quezon City with pig’s blood after the police chief vowed to continue its anti-crime operations.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the groups condemned the PNP’s “blind adherence” to President Rodrigo Duterte’s orders, saying that it does not “serve and protect” the interest of Filipinos.
“The massive arbitrary arrests, if left unchallenged, are revealing of a fascist rule in the offing. First, they came for the drug addicts. Now the tambays,” Sanlakas Secretary-General Atty. Aaron Pedrosa said.
“It will only be a matter of time when they will come knocking at anyone’s door,” he added.
Sanlakas, along with women’s group Oriang, Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (Spark), and Kaisa UP called on the PNP to stop all anti-poor measures, respect the rights of the people, and prosecute all police officers involved in the violation of basic rights.
In a previous report, however, PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde shot down claims of human rights violations and targeting bystanders or tambays, saying that not one of those arrested complained of violations.
He also said that the campaign will continue, before clarifying that the apprehended night idlers, now numbering to more than 18,000 individuals, were arrested because they violated certain laws or city ordinances like drinking and smoking in public or roaming in public half-naked.
READ: PNP to continue crackdown vs. tambays amid criticism
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However, Pedrosa echoed the sentiments of other administration critics that PNP’s operations are reminiscent of the Martial law in 1972.
“Our country has been down this road before where widespread warrantless arrests and detention, torture, disappearances and state-sanctioned assassinations were the [norms] and the police playing henchman for a dictator,” he said.
“We must not allow a Marcosian past to be relived under our watch,” Pedrosa added.
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READ: Undeclared martial law: Solon says of campaign vs ‘tambay’
Sean Thakur of UP-Diliman’s University Student Council said that the youth will find ways to fight the alleged abuses of the PNP personnel.
“Despite the PNP’s piling cases of mysterious murders under their custody and unabated assaults on the democratic rights of the youth under Duterte’s reign, we shall not be cowed into submission,” Thakur said.
“The youth will counter him and his police at their every turn,” he added. /ee
