AUTHORITIES will conduct an investigation after a commotion broke out in front of the Police Regional Office 7 (PRO) 7 during a rally to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution.
The demonstrators, which were composed of members of cause-oriented groups Bayan, Karapatan and Makabayan, tried to block vehicles leaving the camp, pulled down streamers and damaged the camp’s boom barrier.
Supt. Pedrillo Villamor, chief of the Regional Headquarters Support Group (RHSG) said they would check the footage of their security camera to find the perpetrators so they could file a case against them.
“They could be charged with damage to property. It was a good thing we exercised maximum tolerance, otherwise the situation could have escalated,” he said in Cebuano.
The demonstrators started their march in front of the Provincial Capitol and headed to Colon St. on Osmeña Blvd.
They were protesting against the Duterte administration’s Executive Order 70, which created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, and Memorandum Circular 52, which created the inter-agency task force on federalism and constitutional reform.
“Let us remind the people that during martial law, there were 3,740 deaths, pero karon over 35,000 ang gipatay sa administrasyon ni (but over 35,000 people have been killed by the administration of) Duterte,” said Phoebe Zoe Sanchez, chairperson of Karapatan Central Visayas.
Some marchers tried to barge inside the PRO 7 headquarters to turn off the loud music while they gathered outside the gate.
“They tried to drown our voices with their sound system. They were very rude. They wanted to kill the spirit of Edsa. The boundary of the headquarters is the gate. We were standing on public property,” Sanchez said in Cebuano.
Villamor explained that the instruction to play the music came from higher officials.
An official from the Regional Intelligence Division who asked not to be named said if protestors had the right to air their concerns, the police also had the right not to listen to them.
“First of all, they didn’t even have a permit (to stage a rally). And they were supposed to be celebrating the Edsa revolution so their rally should have been peaceful. This was the first time that a commotion happened. We could have sat down and be diplomatic,” the official said in Cebuano.
The Edsa People Power revolt was a culmination of peaceful demonstrations that led to the overthrow of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos on Feb. 25, 1986. (Wenily Sabalo, USJ-R Intern)