THE PHILIPPINE National Police has announced that it will deploy close to 22,000
police personnel to secure the first State of the Nation Address of the second
Marcos occupying the highest government post in the country.
This is coupled with the declaration of Commonwealth Avenue as a “no-rally
zone” along with threats of dispersal should protesters move beyond the confines
of the three freedom parks in Quezon City.
The message that these threats send turns Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos’ vapid
platform of “unity” over its head for, apparently, dissent is not welcome. It is,
thus, the sham kind of unity – one founded on silence instead of peace, one
maintained by ham-fisted force or threats of the use of force instead of
constructive engagement.
The PNP’s threats likewise turns Batas Pambansa Blg. 880 over its head as it issues
what amounts to a presumptive ban on protests in public thoroughfares. Such
presumptive ban has no legal basis. The presumption remains to be in favor of the
freedom of the people to peaceably assemble to petition the government for
redress of grievances as provided for in the Constitution.
Exercising such freedom is not to be confined in designated freedom parks. State
interference in the exercise of such freedom, including a blanket prohibition on
the burning of effigies even done without malice in a controlled manner, cannot
be arbitrarily implemented.
Said intrusions can only be peacefully carried out in case clear and convincing
evidence exists that the public assembly will create a clear and present danger to
public order, public safety, public convenience, public morals, or public health.
What is clear and present in the case of the people is that their situation has
become more precarious in the face of ballooning inflation while the economy
remains configured to be unresponsive to the provision of their basic needs. What
immediately ails the people is the continuing curtailment of their civil liberties as
alternative as well as mainstream news organizations are stripped of their
platforms as well as delegitimized for painting a less than rosy picture of our
national situation.
What remains unsettled are the thousands of human rights violations committed
by the previous administration, which remain out of the radar of the upcoming
administration, if not wittingly tolerated, as the country’s history under a repressive dictatorial regime is continually whitewashed to allow culprits to evade
accountability. As such, the people have a clear and present predicate to dissent.
The National Union of People’s Lawyers shall stand with the people on this day. It
remains ready to render legal assistance to those whose rights will be unlawfully
curtailed by law enforcement acting outside the ambit of the Constitution.
Peaceful dissent, if we insist that we remain to be a democratic society, does not
beg and should not be made to beg for a welcome.
(Press statement/July 22, 2022)
