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Two policemen who joined State of the Nation Address (SONA) protesters to gather intelligence information on Mon, Jul 27, were beaten up by angry street protesters.
PO1 Reden Malagonio and Espinosa Reyes were beaten up and detained by protesters from Bayan Southern Tagalog after they were discovered taking photos and videos of protesters.
The two were held inside a jeepney before they were brought out of the protest venue.
A Karapatan representative said they deleted the contents of the policemen’s cameras before they were turned over to the Philippine National Police.
PNP chief Ricardo Marquez confirmed that the detained men were intelligence officers. He said there was nothing wrong with what the policemen did as it was part of their job.
Marquez said the PNP is mulling charges against those who hurt and detained the policemen.
A Zamboanga City-based journalist was also detained after being mistaken as a police officer.
Gil Climaco of Radio Mindanao Network was taking videos from the Commonwealth overpass when he was apprehended by the protesters.
A Zamboanga congresswoman had to call the protesters to have him released.
The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) had said it will deploy more than 7,500 personnel to secure the Batasan Pambansa compound and its immediate vicinity.
The PNP said it has not monitored any security threat.
The stretch of Commonwealth leading to the Batasan Pambansa has been lined with container vans, concrete barricades and barbed wire ahead of the protest actions.
Classes in all schools in Quezon City on July 27 have been suspended. —from reports from Chiara Zambrano and Jeck Batallones, ABS-CBN News
Photo: Chiara Zambrano, ABS-CBN News
This article has been re-published with permission from ABS-CBNnews.com.
