NCRPO chief defends cops’ SONA ‘videoke’ session

MANILA, Philippines — A “videoke” session by several police officers as protesters were holding demonstrations along Commonwealth Avenue during President Marcos’ State of the Nation Address (SONA) was not meant to bully anyone, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Brig. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said on Monday.

He issued the statement when a video of the session went viral and was described by Rachell Villamor, who uploaded the video on Twitter, as “very disrespectful.”

Villamor said the police officers’ singing drowned out the voices of Southern Luzon farmers and youth as they were holding a protest to air their concerns to the government.

“Instead of hearing the pleas of the activists, the (Quezon City Police District or QCPD) was having a videoke to drown out the program,” Villamor said.

Nartatez said he did not see anything wrong with what the police officers did and it was not meant to bully the activists.

“It is for morale boosting for our personnel,” he said in an interview after the SONA.

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said the city government launched an investigation and found that the police officers seen singing in the video were not from the QCPD but from the NCRPO.

This prompted the city government to relay the concern instead to the Philippine National Police so that activists will be able to “peacefully and freely convey their concerns.”

QCPD director Nicolas Torre III belied Villamor’s claims, saying the patrol vehicle in the video was far from the site of the protest.

He cited a screenshot of a closed-circuit television footage that showed the location of the patrol vehicle and the stage where the protest rally was being held.

“I am sure that you couldn’t hear the singing because the stage was far from the noise in Philcoa. You are a liar as well as your peers,” he said in a Facebook post on Monday.