Bayan to burn effigies at SONA
BAGONG Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Thursday said it would burn effigies at rallies during President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s state of the nation address (SONA) before Congress later this month despite a warning from the Quezon City police.
“Burning of effigies is protected speech,” Bayan Secretary-General Raymond V. Palatino said in a statement. “It reflects people’s outrage over the gross incompetence and grave abuses of the Marcos government.”
He noted that the city prosecutor had dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Quezon City police over the burning of an effigy during a similar protest last year.
“Authorities are desperate in discouraging people to join the SONA protest by spreading fear and intimidating the public, but we will defy and resist it,” Bayan said. “We will burn an effigy of Marcos who represents the biggest scourge in the country today.”
Meanwhile, Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio said she would not attend Mr. Marcos’ third SONA. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza