MANILA, Philippines — Protestors planning to take to the streets for President Rodrigo Duterte's State of the Nation Address on July 27 should just conduct their demonstrations online, Police Gen. Archie Gamboa, chief of the national police, said in his Monday briefing.
Asked what his directives for Metro Manila would be vis-a-vis the demonstrations protesting ABS-CBN's franchise denial and the project SONA protests, Gamboa said: "We know that there are prohibitions on mass gatherings under quarantine protocols, but of course, the public has freedom of expression. The PNP would always respect that."
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Holding mass gatherings, like a birthday party for instance, is against quarantine regulations.
Multi-sectoral groups have already said they would be holding mass actions on Duterte's SONA that would practice physical distancing. Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) also said it was encouraging demonstrators to wear face masks or face shields.
"For those planning to protest, we're pleading with you, if possible, just do it online, because these are not ordinary times. You saw in the past SONA that we allowed it, but now, we have a specific situation in this pandemic. We hope everybody would cooperate because it's not only for our good but for you and for others," he said.
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"The PNP will always balance freedom of expression that people want to exercise and of course keeping the necessary measures especially quarantine protocols on mass gathering. But we will of course practice maximum tolerance," he added.
The national police has promised maximum tolerance in the past, once before Labor Day and another before Independence Day, though both instances of peaceful protest yielded warrantless arrests of their own—even those who did protest online or practice physical distancing—that only led to violations of the very health protocols supposedly being enforced.
"We don't want to be linked to Martial Law-type [enforcement] anymore, and us in the PNP, we have always practiced maximum tolerance. But of course, we will always implement the law," Gamboa said.
READ: PNP: We'll go 'straight to arrests' in 'martial law-type' quarantine