PNP urges public not to join protests

June 5, 2020

The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Friday urged the public not to engage in mass protests as the country is still under public health emergency.

“We were alarmed at the mass action and public assembly at UP Diliman campus yesterday which was held while strict public health measures are still being implemented to stop the spread of COVID-19,” Police Brigadier General Bernard Banac said in a statement.

Banac said, as responsible Filipino citizens, they should avoid any opportunity for possible human-to-human transmission of a deadly virus that even UP scientists themselves are trying so hard to eradicate.

He added the mass action has compromised public health and welfare as well as the rallyists’ own safety.

“We support alternative means to exercise freedom of expression like what some labor groups did last May 1,” he said.

For this year’s Labor Day protest, militant groups conducted their virtual protest as the Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon were under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

During ECQ, mass gatherings are not allowed and those who will be caught will be arrested.

“In this time of public health crisis, the safety of human lives is paramount,” Banac said.

Theyouth and citizens held a protest Friday to express their condemnation against the Anti-Terror Bill in front of the University of the Philippines Cebu.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) said the peaceful protest was dispersed violently and police arrested seven protesters, including Dyan Gumanao, former correspondent of Aninaw, a Cebu-based alternative media group.

"This is a clear demonstration of a fascist administration's attempts to curtail our right to free speech. The threats and attacks against protesters and continuous red-tagging are outright violations of our human rights," CEGP said.

The group said what happened to protesters in UP Cebu is against the 1989 UP-DND accord in which state forces are barred from entering campus grounds unless given permission by the school administration. Ella Dionisio/DMS