‘Mendiola Liberator’ shares experience in Singapore meet

Metro police chief Director Vidal Querol has shared his experience in dealing with protest rallies with his counterparts in Singapore, which will be hosting the International Monetary Fund-World Bank conference this September.

Dubbed the "Liberator of Mendiola" during the bloody riot by supporters of jailed former President Joseph Estrada in May 2001, Querol said his counterparts appreciated his effort to teach them how to handle protest rallies.

"They were very thankful that we shared with them our system in dealing with protest rallies," said Querol, referring to the Singaporean police.

The Metro police chief arrived last Tuesday from the four-day meet in Singapore,

Querol was accompanied by an official from the Directorate for Intelligence (DI) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Camp Crame in the trip.

The Singaporean police sought the help of the PNP on how to deal with rallies so as not to have a repeat of the 2000 incident in Seattle, USA, where anti-riot police clashed with protesters.

"The Singaporeans are very efficient. They strictly obey the law so their police have not had problems with protest rallies," Querol said.

He pointed out that the last time the Singaporean police encountered an uprising was in the 1950s.

"They are fully aware that we deal with almost daily rallies in Metro Manila and majority of them end peacefully," Querol said.

The NCRPO chief said police from Paris, France and Washington DC also shared their rally experience with the Singaporean police.

"Very proud tayo dahil kahit halos araw-araw ang rally dito sa atin, wala namang halos na nasasaktan. May paluan pero hindi naman nagkamatayan," he said.