PRO 7 readies measures for anti-Marcos rally

THE Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 will secure the streets in today’s Black Friday protest against the burial of former president Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB).

The nationwide protest are organized by pro-democracy and human rights victims during Marcos’s Martial Law rule.

PRO7 Director Noli Taliño said that Civil Disturbance Man- agement (CDM) teams from the Cebu Provincial Police Office and Cebu City Police Office are ready.

Personnel from the Regional Public Safety Batallion 7 were also tapped to augment the forces.

“We will observe maximum tolerance for these rallyists,” said Taliño. “I also urged protesters to hold a peaceful rally.”

They received no intelligence reports that there will be persons who will ignite chaos during today’s rally.

Marcos was buried at the LNMB last Nov. 18 to the surprise of the public.

Last Nov. 8, the Supreme Court decided Marcos’s burial did not violate any law.

Nine justices ruled the dictator was never convicted by final judgment of any offense involving moral turpitude, adding the convictions cited by anti-Marcos petitioners were civil in nature.

Five justices, including Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, opposed the burial.

The High Court dismissed seven petitions, including from former torture victims, which argued that an honorable burial for the dictator was “illegal and contrary to law, public policy, morals and justice.”