Rallies and dispersals are part of our times

We fully agree with the stand that the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has taken regarding last Friday’s violent dispersal of a rally led by three bishops near Mendiola that neither the demonstrators nor the police can be fully blamed for the unfortunate incident. We don’t want to hear or see anyone hurt in a public rally and when we say anyone, we mean any rallyist, police or bystander. And we don’t believe that the demonstrators want to hurt anyone and they don’t see the police as an adversary. After all, the main duty of the police is to protect the right of demonstrators to rally so long as they have the proper permit, do not venture into the no-rally zones and conduct themselves peacefully. One of their main problems is to assure that they are not infiltrated by radical groups who are out to sow dissent with the government. What went wrong last Friday was that a "breakaway" group insisted on marching to Mendiola allegedly on their way to San Beda. Mendiola is a main road to Malacañang.

As a result of last Friday’s dispersal by water cannon, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan has announced that it will hold a protest rally right on Mendiola, which is a "no-rally" zone tomorrow, Friday. Their purpose is to challenge anew the "no-permit, no rally" policy of the authorities. This will be a direct confrontation between the Bagong Alyansang Maka-bayan and Manila Mayor Lito Atienza. The Manila Mayor has justified last Friday’s use of a water cannon "to disperse politicians and militants’ intent on breaching security rules designed to protect Malacañang Park from attack." In a press meeting last Monday, the Manila Mayor maintained that the people in the procession had, first, conducted a peaceful rally at Plaza Miranda and had already dispersed themselves when the break-away group composed of only about 100 members went around and slipped through lanes to get to Chino Roces bridge. To ensure that there would be no violence, he fielded police-women and made sure that they had no truncheons.

What we need is an impartial investigation as to what actually happened in last Friday’s water cannon dispersal of a demonstration. First, was it a religious procession or a political demonstration? Some say it was a procession cum demonstration. What did the permit say? Is a prayer rally a procession? Or is it political rally in the guise of a religious procession?

As a result of the procession cum rally last Friday, Sen. Miriam Santiago is now preparing a bill that would specify the location of all public assemblies. In her bill, there would be three kinds of public forums: first, traditional forums, that have traditionally served as places devoted to assembly and debate such as Plaza Miranda; second, limited purpose forums or state-created semi-public forums available to the public such as the meeting rooms in colleges and universities; third and last, freedom parks excluding Malacañang and other government offices.