“Sabi niya tayo ang boss niya, pero ginigipit niya tayo. Hindi niya tayong gustong pakinggan (He said we are his bosses, but he represses us. He does not want to listen to us,” said Mark Louie Aquino, BAYAN NCR Secretary General.
A few hundred meters away from the Batasang Pambansa building, tens of thousands of people belonging to various people’s organizations staged their own version of the State of the Nation (SONA), asserting that the “People’s SONA” is the truthful report of the state of the nation. The protesters marched the length of Commonwealth Avenue up to Ever Gotesco Mall, where the thoroughfare was already heavily blockaded to deter the protest from getting near the Batasang Pambansa.
Approximately 10,000 policemen were deployed in the vicinity, according to the Philippine National Police. Quezon City Police Chief Superintendent Joel Duldulao Pagdilao said the police deployed for the SONA rally would observe maximum tolerance “despite the rally having no permit.”
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III delivered his fifth and last SONA to a jam-packed crowd of legislators, government officials and guests at the House of Representatives on July 27.
No action on SONA permit application
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) applied for a rally permit with the Quezon City local government for the SONA rally, but there was no action made by Mayor Herbert Bautista.
“Sa ngayon, wala pa kaming natatanggap na formal denial mula sa city hall (Up to now, we have not received a formal denial from the city hall),” said Renato Reyes, BAYAN National Secretary General.
Mayor Bautista, in his interview in Ted Failon’s DZMM radio show “Failon Ngayon” on July 27, said there was no time to act on the permit. According to him, the rally permit was applied the Monday (July 20) before SONA and the consultation meeting held two days after or in mid-week, leaving him no time to act on it.
“Dapat nga wala nang permit application. Kasi yung park sa labas lang ng HOR, freedom park iyon at doon malapit sa Batasang Pambansa naming gusto pumunta. (We should not have been required to apply to permit. The park outside HOR is a freedom park and near Batasang Pambansa is where we want to go),” said Mark Louie Aquino.
While the right to assemble is guaranteed in the Constitution, the Batas Pambansa 880 or the “Public Assembly Act of 1985” enacted in the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ presidency added the requisite of a permit “for any person or persons to organize and hold a public assembly in a public place.” One one hand, no permit is required if the public assembly is to be done in a freedom park.
“Ang mga nagpo-protesta ay pwedeng mag-apply ng permit limang araw bago ang eksaktong araw ng protesta…Kapag hindi inaksyunan ng city government ang application within two days, deemed approved ang permit. Mistulang mayroon ka nang written permit kapag hindi inaksyunan (Protesters may apply for a permit five days before the actual day of the protest… If the city government did not act on the application within two days, the permit is deemed approved. It seems as if you have a written permit if your application was not acted upon,” Reyes said.
Should the law be applied, permit should have been granted or deemed approved on July 22.
A letter to Mayor Bautista from Police Chief Pagdilao dated July 23, recommended the denial of the rally permit for the reason “there is clear and present danger to public order, public safety, public convenience, public morals or public health if we allow the rally to be held at the Batasan Road.”
“Sa batas natin, hindi pulis ang nag-a-approve ng permit (In our law, it is not the police who issues the approval for the permit),” Reyes added.
Protesters were dismayed that Aquino showed no let-up in obstructing SONA rallies until his last SONA.
“Wala nang Martial Law at nagpapanggap ang mga pulitiko na ayaw sa Martial Law ni Marcos. Pero ang katulad ni Noynoy na nagsasabing biktima siya at ang pamilya niya ng Martial Law ay nakikinabang sa mga mapanupil na batas mula pa sa panahon ni Marcos (Martial Law is no longer enforced and politicians pretend to detest Marcos’ Martial Law. But people like Noynoy who says that he and his family are victims of Martial Law benefits from repressive policies enforced in Marcos’ time),” said Aquino.
Heavily obstructed Commonwealth Avenue
“The police barriers cause the traffic, not the rally,” Reyes said in earlier media reports.
Days prior the event, concrete barriers, barbed wires, and metal shipping container vans were installed along the center island of Commonwealth Avenue.
On the day of the SONA, the police closed off portions of Commonwealth Avenue and placed layers of obstruction just past Ever Gotesco Mall: concertina wires and concrete barriers, steel fence, container vans, fire trucks and dump trucks and rows of police sandwiched between these layers.
The protesters almost got to the other side of the road through an un-barricaded U-turn slot, after police slacked and retreated due the heavy rainfall. A scuffle ensued between police and protesters, with the police trying to get the protesters to move back to the area they boxed out for the rally. Police hailed a passing truck and had the truck barricade the protesters’ way once again.
“Hindi katanggap-tanggap ang mga harang na ito. Kahit palabasin man ng media na nanggugulo kami, kailangan maunawaan ng publiko na itong mga harang na ito ang patunay na walang tunay na demokrasya sa bansa. Kahit sa panahon ni Noynoy na anak ng ama at ina ng demokrasya kuno (These obstructions were unacceptable. Even if media portrays us as disorderly, the public needs to understand that these barriers were proof that there is no true democracy in the country. Even in the time of Noynoy who is the son of the so-called father and mother of democracy),” said Aquino.
