Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said Friday that she has ordered a revisit of the refused request of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) to hold a protest rally along Batasan Road during the first State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on July 25.
On Thursday, the Quezon City Department of Public Order and Safety (DPOS) on Thursday denied Bayan a permit to rally along the Batasan Road, saying that the area "is not a freedom park to hold protests."
"...I have instructed the (QC-DPOS) to carefully review the counter-points that were presented, and to determine if there are any possible accommodations or middle ground that they can agree upon," Belmonte said in a statement.
"The same will also be applied to all rally permits that are currently with the DPOS," she added.
Belmonte, who is currently abroad to represent the city for a summit, said certain sectors asked her to intervene regarding the denial of Bayan's rally permit application.
"Rest assured, all these shall be discussed during our final SONA coordination meeting, which will happen today," she said.
In a letter dated July 19, QC-DPOS head Elmo San Diego said that the QC Police District (QCPD) recommended the denial of the rally permit that Bayan had applied for.
Law enforcers said that the activity "will greatly affect the normal flow of traffic for motorists" who will pass through the Batasan Road or Commonwealth Avenue during the event.
Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said the permit denial violates the law and constitutional rights.
He said the QC-DPOS "did not exercise its own judgement and independent evaluation of the facts [and] did not exercise independence and autonomy as a local government unit" for copying the QCPD's reasons for the permit denial. --LBG, GMA News
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