Independence Day Protests And Barricades

ON JUNE 12, 2026, PHILIPPINE Independence Day — barb wires, concrete blocks, galvanized iron sheets, and about a hundred baton-and-shield wielding policemen — a sight, a greeting, to behold at the Mendiola St. leading to Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines, Bongbong Marcos and his family. 

Passers-by and the Filipino people are amused, and more realistically, disappointed that the message they get is “BE WARNED, IT’S INDEPENDENCE DAY, YOU’RE NOT WELCOME TO PASS OR STAY HERE! AS YOUR PRESIDENT, I HAVE THE POWER TO CLOSE MENDIOLA, I DON’T CARE HOW YOU FEEL OR WHAT YOU THINK, ‘BASTA’ I DON’T WANT YOU PASSING THIS WAY OR STAYING HERE EVEN FOR A SECOND!”

Since becoming president in 2022  —and incidentally, certain IT professionals/groups and their supporters have consistently claimed that Comelec, headed by Chairman George Erwin Garcia, rigged the elections with the use of Smartmatic — the people were greeted with such display of ‘UNWELCOME’ on certain celebratory days of the country. 

FEELING THREATENED?

The Malacañang resident somehow feels threatened (why?) by his fellow Filipinos who only wish to relay their messages about certain critical problems that need his presidential attention and possible solutions, given his mandate, as head of the country, “to give justice to every man and to build a just and humane society.” 

Every time the country celebrates Philippine Independence Day under this current regime of Pres. Bongbong Marcos and VP Sara Duterte, the said Mendiola display of arrogant power greets the Filipino people. 

For a democratic society, as the Philippines is supposedly characterized, protests by the governed are to be respected and allowed by government authorities. The Constitution in fact recognizes the right of the people to enjoy the Freedoms of Assembly, of Speech, of the Press and other related rights as Filipino citizens. 

It looks like the current head of state, Pres. Bongbong Marcos, has clear memories of his father, Ferdinand Sr, (when he was not yet the brutal ML dictator later), who ordered the Metrocom (forerunner of the current PNP) to disperse with truncheons and gunshots protesting students, workers, farmers and other citizens who had issues to raise before him as the president then. 

A PESTERING PROBLEM

And in today’s current state, Pres. Bongbong felt heavily barricading Mendiola is the more appropriate and creative set-up to discourage activists from disturbing him with their protests and call for solutions to national issues. For example, a pestering problem he still has to address effectively is convicting and jailing the guilty, the “big fish” senators, congressmen and other government officers/employees involved in the deep-seated and widespread corruption prevailing under his administration. 

A most prominent issue is the massive billion-peso kickbacks to senators and congressmen in the flood-control and infrastructure projects of DPWH under former secretaries Samuel Bonoan and Mark Villar.  

More urgent for millions of poor Filipinos are the availability in the market of the promised P20/kg of rice, cheaper/affordable prices of vegetables, fish and meat products, for millions of the unemployed – jobs and livelihoods, and no less urgent, is to hold accountable the AFP/PNP officers and ground troops (with the instigation of the NTF-ELCAC’s illegal red/terrorist-tagging operations) for their human rights violations, particularly in the provinces of Batangas, Samar, Negros and in the IP communities in Mindanao.  

Not to forget, when will   more than 770 political prisoners languishing for years in jail merit and enjoy justice finally?   

Doesn’t President Bongbong, or VP Sara, has the brains to realize and understand that protests from the people arise because national problems need to be solved? 

Protests, barricades and policemen mean “President Bongbong, WORK INTELLIGENTLY ASAP!” 

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