Press Release
July 18, 2007

MAYOR LIM URGED TO STAND BY HIS POLICY LIFTING NO-RALLY BAN ON MENDIOLA

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. (PDP-Laban) today urged Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim to stand by his decision to lift the ban on protest rallies on Mendiola bridge in the face of pressures from Malacañang and military/police authorities to recall such decision.

Pimentel said the policy of Mayor Lim on the issue is in conformity with the fundamental right of the people to peacefully assemble in order to seek redress for their grievances which is guaranteed by the 1987 Constitution.

?Mayor Lim?s insistence that peaceful protest rallies in Manila are a part of the people?s constitutionally-protected rights deserves the applause of the nation,? he said.

?Those who want to curtail those rights, including Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her minions in the armed forces and the police are trying to revive an era of authoritarianism that is based on the rule of the gun, rather than on the rule of law.?

Both the Presidential Security Group and the Philippine National Police are trying to convince Lim to restore the rule making Mendiola, now officially known as Don Chino Roces bridge, as a no-rally zone.

PNP Director General Oscar Calderon suggested that protest rallies should be held instead in designated ?freedom parks? in Manila. Calderon said demonstrations should not be held in a place near the seat of power because of security problems it may cause.

But Pimentel said the problem cited by the PNP chief can be overcome through adequate security measures that will be drawn up by the PSG, PNP, particularly the Western Police District and the Office of the Manila Mayor.

Besides, Pimentel noted that Mayor Lim has already tempered his policy by providing that rallies on Mendiola can be held only during weekends and non-working holidays and on condition that rallysts will secure the necessary permit from his office.

?The mayor is right. He should stick to his original position despite the inherent threat of the executive department that he might be inviting retaliation by those in higher office. As the mayor says, 'the law applies to all or to none at all.?

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