Government rally in Lucena denounces NPA atrocities

Tension gripped Lucena City in Quezon the other day when left-leaning groups found themselves face to face with government supporters, including victims of atrocities by the New People’s Army (NPA), in separate rallies marking Human Rights Week.

Thanks to the intervention of the Quezon police and the military, the tension did not escalate into violence and both sides dispersed peacefully hours later.

The government-sponsored, anti-communist rally was the first of its kind in Quezon, a rebel-infested province. "It was a big success," said Chief Superintendent Domingo Reyes, Southern Tagalog police director.

Reyes urged the leadership of the Philippine National Police to replicate the anti-communist rally in other rebel-infested provinces.

Superintendent Roberto Rosales, Quezon police director, said intelligence units uncovered plans by the underground movement to mobilize protesters to lambast alleged human rights violations by the government.

Members of left-leaning groups, who gathered in front of Camp Nakar in Lucena City, scored the Arroyo government’s alleged human rights violations.

They, however, were caught by surprise when a convoy of 50 vehicles carrying PNP personnel, civilians, rebel returnees and widows, orphans and relatives of victims of NPA atrocities later arrived.

The government supporters were carrying posters and placards bearing slogans denouncing NPA atrocities while inviting members of the community to join their cause.

The left-leaning rallyists taunted and yelled at them but later joined them in a prayer rally, where at least 500 candles, symbolizing the call for peace in the province during the Yuletide season, were lighted.

Rosales said the left-leaning protesters came from the Quezon towns of Candelaria, Tayabas and Pagbilao and the Bondoc Peninsula. They were later joined by cause-oriented groups which gathered in front of the provincial capitol and the Quezon Memorial Hospital.