Yesterday’s Pride protest in Mendiola had 20 LGBTQIA+ rights activists and supporters arrested and detained by police operatives for supposed violations of the Public Assembly Law (BP 880) and Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code on “Resistance and Disobedience to a Person in Authority or the Agents of such Person” in relation to RA 11332 (Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases Law).
Authorities initially claimed that the protesters violated “the rule of law in Manila” without even identifying the particular legislation or ordinance, if any, that had been supposedly transgressed by a peaceful exercise of freedom of speech, expression and assembly, with physical distancing and other health protocols amid the pandemic observed.
Quite belatedly, the arresting officers averred that the rally had no permit in violation of BP880, thus the arrests. Footages of what transpired at the foot of Malacanang in yesterday’s Pride March, however, clearly show who in fact violated the “rule of law.”