MANILA — Civil Disturbance Management (CDM) units assigned to man the inauguration of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos would not allow so-called “illegal rallyists” to get close to the venue, a top police official said on Monday.
According to Philippine National Police (PNP) Director for Operations Maj. Gen. Valeriano de Leon, they have not received any information from local government units — particularly Manila, Quezon City, and Davao City — about permits being issued to protesters.
Marcos is expected to be inaugurated on June 30 at the National Museum grounds along Padre Burgos Avenue in Manila. While no groups have announced any protest movements on the said date, police are expecting groups to stage rallies against the President-elect, just like what happened when he was proclaimed.
“As of today, we have not yet received any communications coming from the primary areas like Manila and Quezon City — that includes Davao City — no permits have been issued by our local government units as of this time,” De Leon told reporters after the flag raising ceremony at Camp Crame.
“Of course the Civil Disturbance Management [has] their roles to ensure that the proceedings in the event area will not be disturbed. So ang trabaho talaga ng [CDM] is to ensure that illegal assembly, illegal rallyists will not get close to the event to disturb the proceedings of the oath taking,” he added.
De Leon said he will personally check on the preparations along with Marcos’ team to ensure that ample security is provided for the event. The PNP official has not given an exact number of police personnel that would be deployed to the inauguration, but he said that a minimum of 2,000 officers would be mobilized.
He also noted that the personnel of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) is more than enough to handle the inauguration, saying that the officers from Region 3 and Region 4 would only be utilized to ensure that traffic is managed, and that there would be no movements from left-leaning organizations planning to stage protests.
“The Presidential Management Staff-designate has already conducted inspection in the proposed area and that is the one that I am to do for today, just to make sure that the police requirements and probably other security forces will offer our services and security package to ensure the flow of traffic, the safety and orderly proceedings of the oath taking,” De Leon explained.
“The NCRPO has enough number of police personnel, the Regions 3 and 4 will only be utilized to ensure that there would be no movements, especially those that are left-leaning organizations taking advantage of this activity,” he added.
Marcos is taking his oath of office at the National Museum, in place of the Quirino Grandstand which has been turned into a field hospital for COVID-19 patients. His running mate, Vice President-elect Sara Duterte-Carpio meanwhile will be inaugurated in Davao City on June 19.
Last May 25, while Congress was set to proclaim Marcos and Duterte-Carpio as winners of the 2022 national elections, a short scuffle broke out as protesters at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) office were prevented from moving along Commonwealth Avenue.
The incident prompted a probe from CHR, who said that people engaged in peaceful assembly must not be water cannoned. However, PNP said that they were merely doused with water as the protesters allegedly tried to break the formation of CDM personnel in the area, to force their way to Commonwealth Avenue.
The actions of the CDM units were condemned by opposition leaders, but PNP officer-in-charge Lt. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr. said that this proved that the police have been professional in doing their job. (Gabriel Pabico Lalu ©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2022)
