(PNA photo by Lloyd Caliwan)
MANILA – The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday thanked several groups for their cooperation in the mass actions that resulted in a peaceful and orderly security situation during the final State of the National Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“The SONA 2021 was generally peaceful without any untoward incident that significantly affected today’s national event. I am glad that reason prevailed over these groups to peacefully disperse or called off their activities altogether. The best interest of public health and safety, and the rule of law spoke louder than the political undertones of these mass actions in the streets,” PNP chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said in a statement.
He added that other groups also ended their activities and dispersed peacefully upon the conclusion of the SONA at the Batasang Pambansa.
“I am thankful to the organizers and leaders of these public assemblies for heading our call for sobriety and cooperation with police units on the ground for the peaceful and orderly outcome of activities,” he added.
Meanwhile, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Maj. Gen. Vicente Danao said rallyists agreed during dialogues held before the SONA that they will abide by the minimum public health standards set, including wearing of face mask, face shield and physical distancing.
He added that the small altercation between the rallyists, who tried to occupy the northbound stretch of Commonwealth Avenue during their march to St. Peter Parish Church, was immediately resolved.
"It's just a simple misunderstanding because they wanted to occupy the whole road and we didn't agree because that will cause traffic. So we requested them to occupy only half (of the northbound lane). That was the only problem but it ended well,” Danao told reporters.
Danao said NCRPO personnel and their augmentation forces remain in the area to ensure the safety of officials leaving the Batasan premises.
“Ang atin pong kapulisan (Our police personnel) will be here up to the last minute until we see that the President is back to Malacañang. Our personnel on security detail are also in place until the VIPs reach their homes safely,” he added.
Earlier, some 1,000 members of cause-oriented groups were sighted along University Lane at the University of the Philippines-Diliman.
This group inside UP campus grew to 3,000 at 1:30 p.m. when more participants from other organizations converged.
Another group numbering 200 was monitored massing at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Office along Commonwealth Avenue at 11:50 a.m.
No visible attempts by these groups to march further to Batasan were observed until the groups eventually dispersed peacefully at 4 p.m.
At least 15,000 policemen were deployed to secure Duterte's final SONA, with some of the police force's newly procured body-worn cameras used for the event. (PNA)
