By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Labor Day celebrations on Wednesday was so far generally peaceful, with no untoward incident reported, the Police National Police (PNP) said.
“As of midday, the PNP finds the peace and order situation nationwide to be generally peaceful and orderly, with no untoward incidents reported,” said Col. Bernard Banac, PNP spokesperson.
“We support free expression of concerns from our workers in an orderly manner,” he added.
In a statement sent to reporters, Banac said the PNP remains on full alert to provide security to the public.
“We laud the workers nationwide for commemorating Labor Day in an orderly and peaceful manner,” Banac said.
Banac said police officers will observe maximum tolerance during rallies and protest actions.
“We allow them up to the point that our police will get hurt but if they went beyond the limitation and we need to do an action, our police responds back for the safety of the general public,” he added.
He reminded the public not to join any protest rallies if it involves disturbing peace and order like vandalism and destroying of public fixtures like fences.
“We encourage a peaceful and orderly protest. We should not vandalize and destroy any public fixtures, and let’s not throw our trashes on the street,” he said.
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, National Capital Region Police Office Regional Director, also assured protesters of their safety during the rally.
In a text message, Eleazar said as of 12:30 p.m., there were more or less 4,100 rallyists in Chino Roces Bridge and Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila.
“I assure that the NCRPO is always ready to secure the public from any eventuality as well as guarantee that your police force will deal with those who will conduct rallies with maximum tolerance and outmost respect for human rights. Consequently, I would like to remind the public regarding the ‘no permit, no rally’ policy except for freedom parks. Protesters must follow existing laws and ordinances to ensure the successful conduct of this event,” Eleazar said.
“I highly encourage the public to report any suspicious people and abnormal behavior to any policeman nearest to them or text the NCRPO hotlines, 0915-888-8181 or 0999-901-8181,” he said.
A total of 8,423 police officers were deployed in Metro Manila to secure the Labor Day celebration.
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