Such statements, he said, are usual ingredients of a disinformation campaign seeking to destroy the spirit of a legitimate people’s assembly.
Binay was reacting to Metro police chief Director Vidal Querol’s statement that they received intelligence reports that majority of those who attended the rally were City Hall employees.
"It’s an open secret that majority of those who attended the rally were City Hall employees, who are now complaining that they were not properly paid by their recruiters," Querol earlier said.
Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas Jr., the NCRPO intelligence chief, said they received information that some 360 rallyists from La Colina, Barangay Parang, Marikina City claimed to have been recruited by a homeowners’ association official.
Those who joined, he said, boarded 11 jeepneys that ferried them to the rally site, bringing with them their children who skipped classes.
The "recruits" claimed they were disappointed after their recruiter handed them only P30.
Other rallyists coming from resettlement sites in Balubad, Nangka, Malanday, Victory Hills, Tumana and Concepcion claimed that their "rally fee" was also reduced to a mere P100 per person, the NCRPO said.
Binay said the claims were nothing more than dirty tactics meant to discredit organizers and participants of the anti-Arroyo rally.
"Unless Director Vidal Querol and the NCRPO have now openly declared themselves to be on the side of the highly unpopular Arroyo regime, his remarks regarding last week’s rally in Makati are highly irresponsible and unprofessional," Binay said.
Querol, he said, "insulted the thousands of people who came to Makati last Friday to protest the cheating during the 2004 presidential elections, which involved President Arroyo and officials of the Commission on Elections, and to call for the ouster of the President."
Binay reminded the NCRPO chief that as an official of the Philippine National Police, his allegiance is to the Constitution and the Filipino people and not to an "illegitimate regime."
"At a time when the people are exercising their constitutional right to free speech and assembly, the PNP should display its professionalism," he said.
Meanwhile, the NCRPO said it will continue to entertain complaints of urban poor residents regarding the non-payment of their "appearance fee."
Querol directed his five district directors and 37 station commanders to document complaints raised by the urban poor dwellers should they surface at their offices.
"I’ve directed our local police to record the complaints of the poor residents and possibly identify their recruiters," Querol told The STAR. – With Non Alquitran