Party-list lawmakers belonging to the House of Representatives’ Makabayan bloc today slammed the Presidential Security Group (PSG) for allegedly confiscating their protest attires and props before the start of President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.
Kabataan party-list Representative Sarah Elago lamented at a Makabayan bloc press conference today that the protest sashes her guests wore were taken by the PSG at the Batasang Pambansa (Philippine Congress) in Quezon City, reported Rappler.
Her guest Russel Hopio wore a sash that showed a group of people wading through water, which called for the protection of people’s welfare. Sheerah Escudero, another one of Elago’s guests, wore one that said “Stop the Killings.”
Elago also wore a sash that showed people surrounded by marine creatures that called for the government to defend the country’s territories. But it was not taken from her and she was able to walk down the SONA red carpet wearing it.
“If in Congress our voices and our rights to express ourselves are being taken away, what more for those who are outside Congress?” Elago told The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
While the PSG did not confiscate Elago’s sash, she alleged that one of the guards kept looking at it when she was inside the plenary hall.
Another member of the Makabayan bloc, Representative Arlene Brosas of the Gabriela Women’s Party, lamented in a separate statement that her fan was confiscated while she was walking towards the plenary hall.
Brosas was protesting against the privatization of water and other basic services and her fan had “Service to the people, don’t make these your business” written across it in Filipino.
According to a post on party-list Bayan Muna’s Facebook page, their Representative Ferdinand Gaite was supposed to wear a barong (traditional men’s shirt) calling for the end of contract-hiring (aka endo) but he was allegedly prevented by security personnel to wear the attire inside the Batasang Pambansa and was made to wear a plain barong.
Gaite said in the press conference today that it was a member of the PSG who stopped him from entering the building wearing his protest barong, reported the Manila Bulletin.
The guard told Gaite that they were instructed by their superiors to prohibit the protest attires. However, Gaite alleged that when he asked for a copy of the order, the PSG member was unable to give him one.
“Apparently, there’s also martial law here in the House of Representatives. When I last checked, we have freedom of expression, there’s no martial law here,” Gaite said in English and Filipino during today’s press conference, according to GMA News.
This is not the first time the Makabayan bloc members used their attires to make political statements during the SONA. In 2014, they wore peach to express their desire to have then-President Benigno Noynoy Aquino III impeached. In 2013, then Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares wore a barong that said “Junk VFA,” which called for the removal of the Philippines’ Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States.
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