Anti-riot police personnel deployed for President Benigno Aquino III’s third State of the Nation Address in Quezon City on Monday were sternly reminded over the weekend not carry firearms, the Philippine National Police’s chief said Saturday.

PNP chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome also reminded his personnel to maintain maximum tolerance at all times, especially when protesters try to provoke them with pushes or shoves.

“Siyempre kailangan dito maximum tolerance. Kung may dala kang baril minsan masaktan ka, iiwasan natin further ang pananakit, kaya bawal magdala ng baril sa aming hanay," he said in an interview on dzBB radio.

He also appealed to protesters to keep their rallies and marches peaceful.

Bartolome said police have reminders not to react to protesters, so long as they conduct their actions peacefully.

“For as long as they conduct it peacefully ang pulis palaging nahaharap sa ganyan, minsan naabot ng tulakan. Hindi dapat mag-react ang pulis natin, they just have to maintain their ground," he said.

Earlier, dzBB quoted PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo Jr. as saying Metro Manila police chief Director Alan Purisima gave a similar reminder to his men not to carry firearms on SONA day.

Some 6,000 police personnel are to be deployed to the area around the Batasan Complex where Aquino will deliver on Monday afternoon his third SONA before a joint session of Congress.

For their part, militant groups claimed some 10,000 protesters will march in the streets to air their grievances on that day.

However, Cerbo also said the PNP will not allow protesters to get closer to the Batasan Complex than the Gotesco mall area along Commonwealth Avenue.

He was quoted in the report as saying the parish priest of St. Peter Church along Commonwealth Avenue had asked that militants not get too close to the area.

For its part, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said it is ready to keep the peace during the SONA.

The dzBB report quoted BFP Metro Manila head Chief Superintendent Santiago Laguna as saying 31 fire trucks and ambulances are ready for deployment for the SONA.

Laguna also said 283 firefighters and paramedics will be ready to respond to civil disturbances.

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said seven of its civil disturbance units will be on standby starting Sunday.

The report quoted the AFP as saying its crowd control personnel have undergone human rights seminars in preparation for Monday’s event. — LBG, GMA News