Protesters to try to go near Congress during SONA

MANILA, Philippines —  Protesters will try to hold a program near the Batasang Pambansa compound in Quezon City on Monday for President Benigo Aquino III's last State of the Nation Address (SONA), a lawyer of militant group Bayan said.

Laywer Josalee Deinla of the National Union of People's Lawyer (NUPL) said her clients "will be asserting" their right to peaceably assemble near the House of Representatives complex where the president will be conducting his final SONA.

"We reiterated that our clients wish not to cause violence but only to exercise their democratic right to address their legitimate grievances to the government during the president's last SONA," Deinla said in a text message.

On Wednesday, officials of the Quezon City government and police sat down in a dialogue with leaders of the various groups that would be holding demonstrations during the SONA as part of authorities' security preparations.

Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. applied for a permit to rally near the House of Representatives before the Quezon City government.

Mayor Herbert Bautista, however, has yet to act on Reyes' application for rally permit, according to Deinla.

"We said that the designation of a public place for the SONA rally cannot be arbitrary and must be based on clear and present danger of the public," she added.

The Quezon City government has confined the rallies and programs of protesters in front of the shopping mall along Commonwealth Avenue which is at least five kilometers from the House of Representatives.

Authorities will also set up a blockade of several container vans and barbed wires to prevent protesters from breaking away from the area.