MANILA, Philippines—The police are in the Makati City Hall grounds to preserve the peace.
Director Carmelo Valmoria, the head of the National Capital Region Police Office, said this on Wednesday in response to reports that contempt charges had been filed against him and several others by suspended Makati Mayor Junjun Binay for their alleged defiance of a Court of Appeals temporary restraining order against Binay’s suspension.
“If the police aren’t there and something happens, we will be the ones to be blamed. Our mandate is not to interpret the law but to preserve peace and order. Nothing more, nothing less,” Valmoria said.
He said that while there were “no problems” with the two city officials—Binay and Vice Mayor Romulo Peña Jr., who was sworn in as acting mayor on Monday—it was the supporters of both camps that he was concerned about.
Based on his experience, it was the supporters of politicians who would sometimes clash when tensions arise. “So since Monday when we escorted the (Department of the Interior and Local Government) in the service of the suspension order, we didn’t leave because the situation was still not stabilized,” Valmoria said.
According to Valmoria, Peña had requested for policemen for the “maintenance of peace and order” in the city hall grounds after he was sworn in last Monday.
But even if Peña had not made the request, the police would still have been deployed “to pacify (supporters) just in case,” he said.
He said the troops—including the elite Special Action Force—who were deployed at the Makati City Hall were merely carrying out a “crisis disaster management” function.
Valmoria denied Binay’s allegation that “truckloads of policemen” were being sent to the Makati City Hall premises, creating a “quasi-martial law” atmosphere.
In fact, Valmoria said that as of yesterday, the number of policemen in the area had been drastically reduced, such that it was “only 1/5 or even 1/6” of the initial number deployed on Monday. With reports from Nancy Carvajal