Marbil orders filing of charges vs protesters who would burn effigies, hurt cops during SONA
Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), ordered on Monday, July 22, the filing of criminal charges against those who would be monitored to be burning effigies as part of the protest action during President Marcos’ State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Marbil said he already instructed both the Metro Manila and Quezon City police heads to gather sufficient pieces of evidence and immediately file the case for violations of the law pertaining to the Clean Air Act.
“I ordered the NCRPO (National Capital Region Police Office) to ensure that no one would burn anything (during the rally). But if it is done and the police could not go there, then my instruction is to just file cases against these people,” said Marbil.
“There’s no exception in the law. Even the policemen, whenever they would hurt anybody, some people are asking them to be put in jail. On our part, we will file cases against those people who would violate the law,” he added.
Marbil led the inspection of the deployment of policemen near the Batasan Pambansa on Monday.
He said he was satisfied with the security preparations and the implementation on the ground.
Marbil also said that all policemen will exercise maximum tolerance, provided that protesters will also respect the law.
“I already ordered the regional director of the NCRPO to file cases against anybody who would inflict harm on any police officer, criminal and civil cases.