No anti-GMA rallies monitored in Manila

No anti-government rallies were monitored in Manila yesterday where cause-oriented groups usually hold their own version of the State of the Nation Address in various city venues to coincide with the President’s SONA at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.

Except for some 1,000 pro-government rallyists who gathered at the Don Chino Roces Bridge in Mendiola past 10 a.m., there were no other rallies monitored by the District Tactical Operations Center (DTOC) of the Western Police District (WPD).

DTOC personnel said marchers, carrying placards and streamers urging President Arroyo to run for president in 2004 elections, came from different barangays at the Baseco Compound in Tondo.

Placards which read "Bida si Gloria" and "Run GMA Run" dominated the rally. The group was also set to march to the Batasang Pambansa to lend their support for Mrs. Arroyo.

The US Embassy compound in Manila and the Supreme Court building along Taft Avenue, traditionally places of mass actions during SONAs, were surprisingly clear of rallyists yesterday.

WPD director Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong attributed the absence of traditional rallyists yesterday to the government’s strict implementation of the "no permit, no rally" policy.

Bulaong had warned rally organizers they would face arrest should rallies be held in public places without first securing permits.

He said Section 13 of Batas Pambansa 880 bans the holding of any public assembly by any leader or organizer without first having secured a written permit.

Bulaong cited the case of People’s Consultative Assembly (PCA) leader Linda Olaguer-Montayre and Muslim rally organizer Nashrin Pagandapon who were charged with violation of Section 13 of BP 880.

It can be recalled that on July 22 last year, Montayre and Pagandapon organized a rally along A.H. Lacson in Sampaloc, Manila, which the police claimed was not covered by a permit. As the police tried to disperse the rally, a commotion took place resulting in a stone-throwing incident which seriously hurt Senior Superintendent Rafael Corpus, then the WPD chief of the civil disturbance unit.

Manila prosecutors ruled that the two held a rally in a public place not established by law as a freedom park or a campus of a government-owned and operated educational institution, without first having secured a permit. The accused posted bail of P10,000 each.