(We yield this space to the statement of Panay Alliance Karapatan due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
EVENTS experienced by transport groups, progressive organizations, and protesters in Panay Island who came out to exercise their basic constitutional rights even as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered his State of the Nation Address highlighted the continuing government clampdown on civic space and the widespread human rights violations across the country.
Upon the recommendation of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Iloilo City government denied protesters a permit to march through city streets, limiting them to holding a rally only at the Iloilo Provincial Capitol. The reason cited: possible traffic congestion.
Even under the country’s draconian public assembly law that severely limits the right to protest – the martial law-era Batas Pambansa Bilang 880 – a permit to conduct a protest, even one that involves the use of public thoroughfares, may be denied or modified only if there is an imminent and grave danger of a substantive evil warranting the denial or modification. Traffic is and has never been a valid reason to prohibit a march.
In the hierarchy of rights and freedoms, the right to protest occupies a favored place because it is the most potent tool in the citizenry’s limited arsenal to air their grievances and convey their sentiments on social issues.
For weeks, the government, through the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, had also threatened drivers and operators planning to carry out a transport strike, to protest the impending jeepney phase-out, that they faced cancellation of their respective franchises and permits. Still, the majority of drivers and operators in Panay stood their ground and pushed through with the transport strike.
Not content with threats to cancel the franchises and permits, the PNP harassed protesters at the strike center in Iloilo City, claiming that they were prohibited from using placards and threatening to confiscate the protest material. There is no legal basis for such repressive acts. Holding placards and protesting at strike centers are well within the rights guaranteed by the 1987 Constitution. These do not require permits because such acts are facets of free speech and expression.
The threats and acts of harassment from the LTFRB and the PNP are blatant violations of constitutionally-protected freedoms, and it is evident that the objective of such acts is to stifle dissent and prevent people from expressing dissatisfaction with the Marcos administration.
It is not merely the President who should be granted the platform to speak on this day. Ordinary citizens have every right to be heard, to protest, and to speak out on the realities that they face, such as worsening poverty and unemployment, the inadequacy of social services, the adverse economic impact of jeepney phase-out, and ongoing human rights violations committed by the police and the military.
It is the collective voice of the people that holds greater importance and ought to be heard, for it depicts a far more genuine reflection of the current station of the nation.
