SOME members of the Malacañang Press Corps (MPC) were briefly barred from entering the New Executive Building (NEB), where the press working area is located, amid a "heightened alert" in anticipation of Labor Day rallies on Tuesday, May 1.
Among those prevented by the Presidential Security Group (PSG) from entering the Palace grounds were a reporter from state-run PTV4 and those who secured a car pass from Malacañang.
They were allowed inside about 20 minutes after being initially stopped from going to the NEB.
PSG officials later apologized to the MPC members over the incident.
PSG commander Brigadier General Lope Dagoy said there was just a "misunderstanding" over the implementation of "red alert" status on Labor Day.
PSG chief-of-staff Colonel Potenciano Camba, in a phone-patch interview, said the presidential security personnel did not anticipate that many MPC members will go to the NEB since it was a holiday.
"We did not expect that many MPC members will still report to work (at the press working area)," Camba said. "Perhaps, things will be smoother as long as there's prior coordination."
Dagoy assured Palace reporters that there was no policy to ban MPC from covering Palace events.
"There was a mere misunderstanding. We declared red alert because we received reports of threats that will be done (at Malacañang compound). So we're just making sure that the building in Malacañang's is secured," the PSG chief, who is in Cebu for a Labor Day event, said in a separate phone-patch interview.
"On my part, I'd like to apologize if you are inconvenienced. But it is not the intent to do that," he added.
The misunderstanding briefly caused alarm among MPC members. It could be recalled that in February, Rappler reporter Pia Ranada, who was assigned to Malacañang, was stripped of her privilege to cover events in the premises of the Malacañan Palace.
Malacañang earlier explained that Ranada was barred, as the executive department was merely complying with the Securities and Exchange Commission's January 11 ruling to terminate Rappler's license for allegedly violating constitutional ownership and control of mass media entitites. (SunStar Philippines)