INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—The National Capital Region Police Office urged militants planning to stage mass actions in Quezon City during President Benigno Aquino III’s State of the Nation Address on Monday to cooperate with authorities for a peaceful and orderly conduct of protest rallies.
Chief Superintendent Marcelo Garbo Jr. made the appeal Thursday as he announced that NCRPO is set to implement a full alert status over all its police offices starting Friday as part of its security preparations for SONA.
“I request for your cooperation. I expect that everything we have talked about will be followed during the SONA day on July 22,” Garbo said.
On Tuesday, Garbo led the “Dialogue with Community Leaders and other Stakeholders” which aimed to establish coordination, cooperation and understanding between the police, stakeholders, community leaders, and cause-oriented groups on self-policing, no permit–no rally policy, traffic rerouting and other public services.
During the meeting, Garbo said protest rallies are banned within the two-kilometer zone of the House of Representatives when President Aquino delivers his speech.
Demonstrators can’t go beyond Ever-Gotesco Mall on Commonwealth Avenue, which is a few meters from the St. Peter Parish Church.
Garbo said around 15,000 to 18,000 militants are expected to join SONA-related protest actions.
Maximum tolerance will be observed by police in dealing with demonstrators, he added.
He also directed Chief Superintendent Christopher Laxa, deputy regional director for Operations, to review previous SONA experiences and come up with more comprehensive strategies to ensure the success of the security coverage.
About 8,000 police officers from NCRPO and Quezon City Police District will be deployed near the Batasang Complex to maintain security.
Nonetheless, Garbo directed all his District Directors to account all police officers and to strengthen police’s anti-criminality and police visibility operations all over Metro Manila, while everyone is busy for SONA.
“We will not give the would-be perpetrators to take advantage of the situation,” Garbo added.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority said it will deploy 1,200 of its personnel to ensure orderly traffic near Batasan complex.
The coding scheme will not be lifted, MMDA said.
The MMDA is also set to deploy about 100 crowd control and management personnel for the SONA.
Emergency personnel, fire trucks and ambulances will also be on standby.