Cebu cops arrest 7 protesters denouncing anti-terror bill

Police in Cebu arrested seven people rallying to denounce the controversial anti-terrorism bill in front of the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu, on Friday, June 5.

Two of the seven are students, namely Bern Cañedo of UP Cebu University Student Council and Nar Athena Mae Porlas of Anakbayan UP Cebu.

Others that were arrested are UP alumnus Al Ingking, Joahanna Veloso of the National Union of Students of the Philippines, Dyan Paula Gumanao of Kabataan Partylist Cebu, Jaime Paglinawan of BAYAN Central Visayas, and Janry Ubal of Food Not Bombs Cebu.

According to the police, they arrested the protesters for allegedly violating the ban on mass gatherings under the health measures of a general community quarantine (GCQ).

Videos circulated online showing the cops, both in uniforms and in plain clothes, chasing and arresting the rallyists, even those who entered the campus. This, despite the existence of a 1989 agreement between UP and the Department of National Defense (DND), known as the Soto-Enrile Accord, which prohibits police and military presence in any of UP’s campuses unless the administration of the state university allows.

Central Visayas police director, Brigadier General Albert Ferro, however, insisted that the cops did not violate the accord. He said the police were in “hot pursuit,” a type of warrantless arrest.

Ferro also explained that the people of Cebu are being endangered as this kind of activities are means in spreading the coronavirus and they are just “preventing it.”

As of writing, no charges were pressed onto the protesters currently detained in the Cebu City Police Office. However, according to the police official, the detained persons will be facing violations of at least three charges.

• Batas Pambansa 808, that requires a permit before rallying
• Cebu City’s GCQ measures, Mayor Edgar Labella’s Executive Order No. 079
• Republic Act 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act, Section 9(e), which states “Non-cooperation of the person or entities identified as having the notifiable disease, or affected by the health event of public concern”

Many netizens online slammed these developments as the anti-terror bill that the protesters are fighting is feared by critics to be an avenue for power abuse by the administration and by the forces.