Ebdane defends WPD

Philippine National Police chief Director General Hermogenes Edbane Jr. defended yesterday officers of the Western Police District (WPD) involved in the dispersal of protesters at Plaza Miranda last Tuesday.

Edbane said the Manila policemen were merely implementing the law when they decided to disperse the rally.

"Our men are there to protect the citizens of the country. We recognize the right to air grievances, but they should not trample the rights of others," Edbane said. "It’s a matter of conforming with the rules."

Militant groups claimed they were holding a prayer vi-gil for overseas Filipino worker Angelo de la Cruz at Plaza Miranda when the police used truncheons and water canons to disperse them.

Edbane stood by the report of WPD director Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong that the rallyists provoked policemen when they started pelting them with stones.

Manila policemen identified as Inspector John Guiagui, PO3 Calvin Capuno, SPO1 Danilo Quitson, PO3 Michael Marinas and PO2 Adel Lucero were injured during the attack.

Ebdane recalled that he was once hurt during a rally when he was hit by an unidentified protester in Manila during his stint as WPD director.

Police said members of the militant group Akbayan also tried to park their vehicle at the prohibited area of Plaza Miranda. Failing to do so, the rallyists occupied the middle portion of Quezon Boulevard in Quiapo causing heavy traffic.

Four rallyists, including Akbayan leader Renato Reyes, were arrested and charged with direct assault, illegal assembly and resisting arrest.

The militants picketed at the WPD headquarters on United Nations Avenue in Ermita, Manila last Wednesday afternoon to denounce the violent dispersal.

They also called for the release of their four companions arrested during the rally.

Meanwhile, Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to investigate the "violent" dispersal of the rallyists.

Pimentel said that the dispersal of some 200 members of militant and other cause-oriented groups at Plaza Miranda, a declared freedom park, showed the Arroyo government’s paranoia, "suppressing a legitimate expression of grievances."

He said that police broke the rules of engagement when they clubbed some rallyists, including Bayan Muna vice chairwoman Carol Araullo.

"In complete deviation from Malacanang’s purported policy of maximum tolerance toward peaceful protests, it was clear that the policemen used excessive force in dispersing the rally," Pimentel said.

He said that the Constitution guarantees the right of the citizens to public assembly to ventilate legitimate grievances.

"But it is sad to say that this government does not have any respect anymore for the right of peaceful assembly enshrined in the Constitution," Pimentel said.

He said the CHR’s recent statement denouncing the policemen’s use of naked force in dispersing peaceful protest rallies as a flagrant violation of their civil liberties is not enough.

The CHR should assert its constitutional role in safeguarding the people’s rights and prevent itself from being reduced to an inutile agency or a paper tiger, he said.

"If the policy of the present government is to suppress protest rallies and other legitimate forms of dissent, that only shows how paranoid they have become, perhaps because they know in their hearts that the victory of President Arroyo was not a product of clean and credible election," Pimentel said.

He claimed that curtailment of the right of assembly under the Arroyo government has gone too far. — With Jose Rodel Clapano