Police say 5k attended anti-‘pork’ event at Luneta, militants claim 20k

(Updated 2:58 p.m.) Police in Manila estimated at least 5,000 people attended a mass action against the pork barrel system at the Quirino Grandstand on Monday.

National Capital Region Police Office head Chief Supt. Carmelo Valmoria said this was the crowd estimate as of 11 a.m.

 

Manila Police District spokesman Chief Inspector Erwin Margarejo gave this estimate as well as of noon, radio dzBB's Carlo Mateo reported.

As of 12:30 p.m. though, the number of protesters in the area decreased to more or less 4,500, even as the program and signature campaign were still ongoing, Valmoria said.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr., however, claimed "nearly 20,000" went to Luneta to "protest pork and corruption and support people's initiative."

 

No untoward incident was recorded during the event, where protesters signed a people's initiative seeking to scrap the pork barrel system. 

 

Some groups also held protest actions against the pork barrel system, Charter change, term extension for the President, and President Benigno Aquino III's attacks on the Judiciary.

Among the groups that participated in the event were the #abolishpork movement, Association of Major Religious Superiors (AMRSP), Scrap Pork Network, Integrated Bar of the Philippines, judiciary employees, Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), BAYAN, LGBT groups, artists, former beauty queens, students, bishops and civic groups.

 

The people's initiative seeks to abolish the presidential and congressional pork barrel system and mandates line item budgeting.

 

It seeks as well to prohibit and to criminalize appropriation and use of lump sum discretionary funds, and penalizes violators with six to 10 years' imprisonment and disqualification from holding public office.

 

Under Republic Act 6735, the people’s initiative law, at least 10 percent of the total number of registered voters—and three percent of each legislative district is needed.

 

Last Saturday, a People's Congress was held in Cebu also to seek signatures for the people's initiative against the pork barrel system. —Joel Locsin/KG, GMA News