By NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS IN THE PHILIPPINES

4 March 2015

The National Union of Journalists is alarmed and angered at what can only be described as the patently illegal and brazen harassment by personnel of the Quezon City Police District of the organizers of the Sine Henerasyon event at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani during the weekend.

According to a post by independent film maker JL Burgos, son of press freedom icon Jose Burgos Jr. and brother of desaparecido Jonas Burgos, a patrol car and bomb squad vehicle from QCPD Station 10 arrived at the venue around 10 a.m. and the policemen asked the staff about the event and its organizers.

They claimed they needed to “sweep” the place because a VIP was supposedly scheduled to arrive. When they departed, they left two of their number, both armed with assault rifles, outside the venue.

Suffice it to say no “VIP” showed up.

Around 4:30 p.m., Burgos said another group of policemen arrived and then, after looking at the posters in the venue, began asking the organizers if the films they were showing were about the New People’s Army. Again, they left two of their number behind when they departed.

But it wasn’t over. Around 8 p.m., yet another patrol car arrived and the occupants began grilling the staff about the event’s organizers. When confronted and asked why they were there, Burgos said the policemen could give no clear answer and eventually left.

By lying about the reason for their presence in the first instance and the questions they asked when they returned that afternoon, it was clear that the QCPD personnel were out to intimidate the organizers of what, to them, probably constituted a “subversive” activity that shouldn’t have been allowed at all.

It is clear that the QCPD are in dire need of a refresher course on their oft-quoted but often disregarded motto, “To Serve and Protect,” which means not only our lives and properties but all the rights and freedoms our Constitution guarantees, including the right to free expression and freedom of the press.

So what if, as the QCPD clearly believed, the films were about the NPA and other “subversive” subjects? While it is true that the NPA is still outlawed, last we looked, discussing them and what they stand for, or even sympathizing with them, are not a crime.

This, after all, is the very foundation of the democracy the police are sworn to uphold and defend: We may not agree with what others may say but we should and are indeed duty-bound to, defend their right to say it.

We demand that the QCPD, at the very least, apologize to the Sine Henerasyon organizers.

But to ensure that such a display of official arrogance is never repeated, we call on the leadership of the Philippine National Police to live up to their oaths and investigate posthaste the actions of the QCPD personnel and impose the appropriate sanctions on those responsible for this ill-conceived attempt to stifle free expression. # nordis.net