Women activists seek probe of Baguio cop ‘harassment’ over chalk art event
Baguio City on map
BAGUIO CITY — A group of women activists asked the City Council Monday to investigate a police officer who barred them from participating in the chalk art event on Dec. 4 last year because they were promoting “terrorist” ideas.
Imelda Tabiando, spokesperson of the Cordillera chapter of the Justice and Peace Network (Japnet), said a city policeman chastised the group who wrote down slogans like “Women Against Tyranny” and messages supporting Sara Dekdeken, Secretary General of the militant Cordillera People’s Alliance.
Dekdeken was fined recently for a cyber libel conviction won by a retired police general.
Downtown Session Road is converted into a pedestrian mall on Sundays, and residents are encouraged to draw chalk portraits and other art expressions on the pavement.
The policeman allegedly warned them that the messages they drew were “terms used by communist terrorist groups” and directed them to stop by threatening to collect details about their identities and organizations, Tabiando said during the Council’s Citizen’s Forum.
The policeman was not identified in the complaint that Tabiando had aired. She said Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong referred them to the National Bureau of Investigation when he heard about the incident.
But the group said they decided not to file a criminal complaint and would instead seek a set of guidelines from the Council against bullying and political vilification by uniformed personnel.
During the 2019 polls, the police did not accost the youth, who made protest messages along Session Road on Sundays.
The Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) has yet to issue a statement as of Tuesday morning.
But on Dec. 5, BCPO public information officer Lieutenant Angeline Dongpaen said the police officer was only conversing with the activists, and “no harassment” had taken place.
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