MANILA, Philippines — Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año on Wednesday directed the Philippine National Police to go after vandals for disregarding the law and defacing government properities.
Año gave the order as he asserted that the arrest of four members of Panday Sining—including a minor—for painting over an LRT post last Bonifacio Day is “just and lawful.”
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The Department of the Interior and Local Government chief pointed out that the authorities already gave the group a warning when it painted Lagusnilad overpass last month, but the group went on with their protest art in different places in Manila.
“Instead of stopping, they went on defacing their surroundings. They are not listening to the authorities. This is too much. Enough,” Año said in Filipino.
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Police in civilian clothes arrested the four members of Panday Sining last Saturday. There were reports that that the activists were manhandled during the arrest, with "at least one was kicked in the chest during the process of arrest."
Vandalism is prohibited in the City of Manila under Ordinance No. 7971, which penalizes any person who defaces public and private property.
Panday Sining said the protest was done in the context of "de facto martial law" and the government's operations against legal activist groups in its "whole of nation approach" against communist rebels.
"Protest art in the time of narrowing space for free and critical thinking is not only just but necessary," it added.
Panday Sining and other artists groups called for the release of the four.
Año stressed that while the government “respects their groups’ freedom of expression, such as freedom is bounded by rules and regulations in order to ensure law and order.”
“Don’t make Metro Manila a big drawing board or canvass. There are a lot of ways to express your insights and your incessant painting over the walls of Manila is not included in them,” Año also said.
DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, the agency’s spokesperson, also said that the public is also “fed up” with the group’s “antics.”
“Discipline first before complaining and protesting,” he said in Filipino. — Kristine Joy Patag