Palace defends Mendiola dispersal

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang defended yesterday the Philippine National Police (PNP) for using water cannons to disperse activists who attempted to camp out in Mendiola on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“The PNP has exercised a wide berth of tolerance for them,” Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda told Palace reporters in a briefing, noting that protesters have been accorded tolerance since the dispersal was made on the second day even if they had no permit to hold a rally in the area.

Lacierda said “a Supreme Court case” ruling states that a time and place has to be stated in a rally permit.

Five protesters, arrested Wednesday after allegedly attacking policemen securing the Mendiola bridge, were charged with sedition, resisting arrest, illegal assembly, physical injury and malicious mischief.

Police Officer 3 Abelardo Aguilar of the Manila Police District identified four of the five protesters as Polytechnic University of the Philippines students Nathaniel Aguilar and Carl Nadunza, University of the Philippines student (UP) Jed Aquino, and shoemaker Wilfredo Monte. The fifth protester was not identified as he is only 17. The five are in the custody of the MPD-General Assignments Section.

The five arrested protesters said their lawyers are preparing to file countercharges against the police officers who arrested them.

The MPD said five alleged protest leaders, who have yet to be arrested, have also been charged with the same offenses: Vencer Crisostomo, Joel Maglungsod, Charice Ibañez, Alvin Evangelista and Andrew Zarate. Aguilar said they will only go after the five alleged leaders once there is a warrant for their arrest.

Around 46 protesters were injured Wednesday when police officers blasted them with water cannons. They tried to put up tents near Mendiola bridge and storm Malacañang, inspired by the “Occupy Wall Street” movement in the United States. A police report said the protesters came from the ranks of the League of Filipino Students, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Gabriela and Anakbayan.

MPD spokesman Chief Inspector Erwin Margarejo said the MPD “will not allow an encampment in Mendiola since it is not a freedom park, where the law allows rallyists to hold their protests.”

The MPD has increased the number of police officers guarding Mendiola bridge and tightened security in the area. The National Capital Region Police Office will send 500 policemen to secure the city and stop militants from marching to Mendiola.

Meanwhile, UP president Alfredo Pascual asked the government to release the arrested students, who were calling for an increase in government subsidy for higher education, among other issues. He said protest actions are “a legitimate expression of civil and political rights guaranteed under the Constitution,” and prohibiting them and branding them as “seditious goes against the core principles of democracy, transparency and accountability” espoused by the Aquino administration. – Nestor Etolle, Sandy Araneta, Rhodina Villanueva