Palace ‘paranoia’ slammed

From the Manila Standard Today (Jul 27): Palace ‘paranoia’ slammed

LEFTIST groups on Sunday slammed the Palace for setting up a fortress of steel and concrete barriers, barbed wire and even container vans and deploying thousands of policemen and soldiers to keep protesters away from President Benigno Aquino III when he delivers his final State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) today.

On Commonwealth Avenue, the road leading to the Batasang Pambansa, empty container vans have been placed on the roadside to prevent protesters from spilling over to the route expected to be taken by the President and members of Congress, where Aquino will give his sixth and last speech during the formal opening of the national legislature. Ey Acasio

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said thousands of protesters would defy the tight security measures, which showed that President Aquino was “running scared, now that the end of the regime draws near.”
“By these paranoid measures, the Aquino government’s fear of confronting the people’s just demands shows through,” Reyes said.

Citing the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NULP), Reyes denounced the government’s contempt for the people’s basic right to peaceful assembly.

“Through its servile and robotic police, it is without a shadow of doubt that it is the government that actually poses a clear and present danger to the public order, public safety and public convenience,” Reyes said.

“The fortress of steel and concrete barriers, concertina wire and container vans along the route to the House where laws by supposed representatives of the people emanate is eloquent proof whose side is this government on. This is not to mention an uninterrupted record of violent and brutal dispersals by an army of so-called law enforcers of otherwise peaceful rallies during past SONAs for good measure,” he added.

Reyes said the failure of the Quezon City government to act on their permit to rally within two days as required by law meant that their application was approved.

“The law is crystal clear. Despite its loopholes, the better part of its letter and spirit are being undermined even further. To coop the people to an arbitrary space to express their grievances is therefore unlawful,” said Edre Olalia, NULP secretary general.

“International law is explicit and mandatory. The noble and basic right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly cannot be curtailed arbitrarily especially on contrived if not imaginary grounds. A government that openly and unabashedly tramples this right for its speculative if not dubious reasons is not only a hypocrite but should be ashamed of itself before the community of nations,” Olalia said.

“After all, history has taught us that marching in streets--no matter how inconvenient to some who are yet to be enlightened or to those ensconced in their entitlements--has changed societies for the better, from abolishing slavery to stopping sweatshop practices, from ousting dictatorships to outlawing apartheid, from overturning racial segregation to protesting wars of intervention.”

Olalia said Aquino had reason to be afraid, as people seek redress for his administration’s “gross and systematic violations of their rights.”

Reyes criticized the President for keeping the people away.

“As he chest thumps and delivers his last litany of “achievements” from yellow-colored glasses in Congress, Aquino, together with his truncheon-wielding henchmen in uniform and lackeys in their posh costumes, will succeed in only one thing: to further isolate themselves from the Filipino people,” he said.

 But the people will defy repression, Reyes said.

“Not even an elaborate blockade and threats of brute police force will stop them from demanding justice and accountability from the government – they who were never cowed into submission by any fascist government not unlike the present one in many ways,” Reyes said.

“The people will and should march on. Join them or get out of their way,” he warned.
The leftist youth group Anakbayan denounced Aquino as a coward who can’t even face his so-called bosses in his final SONA.

“Aquino’s lies cannot hide the systemic corruption and anti-people policies under his administration. The people want him out of office. We are sure that he is already trembling with fear, and that explains his [paranoid] anti-rally blockades on Commonwealth Avenue,” said Vencer Crisostomo, Anakbayan national chairman.

In preparation for SONA, the Aquino administration will deploy more than 2,000 military and 4,000 police personnel; and has already erected concrete barriers, container vans, and concertina wire around Commonwealth Avenue to repel the march toward the Batasang Pambansa complex where the SONA will be delivered.
“The people’s march will not be shaken by Aquino’s fascism. These measures only further enrage the people to call for his ouster,” Crisostomo added.

The Palace on Sunday said all systems were go for the SONA today, with police deployed in Metro Manila and in the provinces to ensure the safety and security of the public.

“Police forces have been deployed routes going to and near the Batasan Pambansa complex. The police forces in the National Capital Region, as well as all police forces in all areas nationwide,  have been deployed in order to ensure peace and order,” said Communications Secretary Hermino Coloma Jr. on  state-run radio dzRB.

Coloma said that the police would observe “maximum tolerance” in dealing with protesters, but urged demonstrators to “observe the laws on freedom of expression” during the SONA.

“We are calling on our brothers who will be expressing their sentiments to let peace and order prevail and follow the laws regarding freedom of expression,” Coloma said.

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