Panday Sining vandals to be charged
Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso vowed to prosecute the four members of militant youth group Panday Sining who were caught vandalizing LRT posts during a protest rally over the weekend.
In a statement, the mayor stressed that he warned the group to desist from further committing acts of vandalism in Manila, or face the full of weight the law.
The vandals, including a minor, were arrested by operatives of the Manila Police District during a rally in observance of Bonifacio Day. They were spray-painting LRT posts in downtown Manila.
Among those nabbed was Joven Francis Laura, 24, who previously admitted in an interview that it was their group, Panday Sining, that vandalized the newly-rehabilitated Manila City Hall underpass.
The group claimed their action was a legitimate form of “protest art.”
Aside from Laura, who is a post-graduate student of the De La Salle University, those nabbed included Jeanne Vaughn Nico Quijano, 24, Mikhail Collado, 18, a fourth year college student at De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, and a 17 year-old Grade 12 student of the Pamantasang Lungsod ng Valenzuela. All four, notably, gave the same address: 864 Tres Marias Street, Blumentritt corner Espana Boulevard, Sampaloc, Manila.
Police said the suspects were about to board a jeepney at 5:54 p.m. when they were arrested at Plaza del Carmen Street fronting San Sebastian Church.
The suspects are now facing charges of malicious mischief, violation of anti-vandalism laws, resisting arrest and interfering in police duties.
Following their arrest, Domagoso said, “You were warned. I asked you not to do it again, but you did it again. You are trying the laws of the City of Manila. Now, you have to face the law and answer to the people of Manila.”
In an interview with Daily Tribune, Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Neri Colmenares pleaded with the Manila mayor to be fair and consider that what the suspects did was to protest and ventilate the people’s feelings. Panday Sining is aligned with the partylist.
“I hope he will understand the sentiment of our youth. These people had no intension of destroying public property, as writings on walls not only happen in our country. This has been practiced as a form of protest by the people,” Colmenares said.