PROTEST WITHOUT PERMIT. Kabakod-Knetco president Lilian Sembrano (left) and Bacod-Manibela president Rudy Catedral lead the protest without a permit outside a hotel along Lacson St. in Bacolod City on Wednesday (Sept. 18, 2024). They posted bail after the Bacolod City Police Office charged them for disobedience to an agent of a person in authority before the City Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday night. (Contributed Photo)
BACOLOD CITY–The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) filed complaints for disobedience and direct assault against leaders and members of transport groups who held a rally without a permit and injured police officers along Lacson St. on Wednesday.
The respondents belong to the Bacolod Alliance of Commuters Operators and Drivers Inc. (Bacod)-Manibela, Kabacod Negros Transport Organization (Knetco), and United Negros Drivers and Operator Center-Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Undoc-Piston). These groups protested they were not invited to the private group-organized Visayas Public Transportation Modernization Program Summit and the Philippine Commercial Vehicle Show and attempted to enter the L’ Fisher Hotel, the venue of the event.
In an interview on Thursday, Lt. Col. Joery Puerto, chief of BCPO City Investigation and Detection Management Unit, said they filed the cases before the City Prosecutor's Office after the inquest proceedings on Wednesday night.
Those charged for disobedience to an agent of a person in authority were Bacod-Manibela president Rudy Catedral and member Shalimar Saleut, Kabakod-Knetco president Lilian Sembrano, Undoc-Piston chairperson Rodolfo Gardose, and secretary-general Eric Bindoy.
All five posted bail of PHP3,000 each.
Kabakod-Knetco member Melchor Umangayon, charged for direct assault upon an agent of a person in authority, has not yet posted a bail set at PHP36,000 and is currently detained at the police station.
Puerto said that Umangayon was identified as the one who cast the stone that injured two police officers.
He added that the complaint for violation of Batasan Pambansa Blg. 880, or The Public Assembly Act of 1985, against Catedral, Sembrano, Gardose, and Bindoy is under preliminary investigation.
"We exercised maximum tolerance. When they refused to disperse, we forced them to leave and arrested the organizers," Puerto said.
The BCPO deployed civil disturbance battalion personnel and sought assistance from the Bureau of Fire Protection-Bacolod City Fire Station, which used a water cannon to disperse the protestors.
BCPO director, Col. Joeresty Coronica, said earlier they warned the same group against holding a protest without a permit, which they also did a few weeks back at the Bacolod City Government Center grounds. (PNA)
