“The liberty of abode and of changing the same within the limits prescribed by law shall not be impaired except upon lawful order of the court. Neither shall the right to travel be impaired except in the interest of national security, public safety, or public health, as may be provided by law.''

"No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.''

Article 13 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, "Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.''

These are among the constitutional provisions and international covenants that the administration and its minions in the police and the military violated last Friday when they prevented thousands of participants from Southern Luzon and other areas from attending the interfaith rally in Makati City.

They also violated these provisions and covenants when they declared the Makati business district a no-fly zone, preventing ABS-CBN Broadcasting from flying its Skypatrol helicopter and taking aerial shots of the rally. Aerial shots would have shown the true size and extent of the crowd that was protesting corruption in government and urging the disclosure of the truth about the anomalous ZTE national broadband network (NBN) deal.

About 30 busloads of students from Cavite province were denied entry to Manila when they reached the Coastal Road. At the boundary of Cabuyao and Calamba in Laguna province, policemen stalled several hundred activists for more than five hours before allowing them to go on their way to Makati.

In Quezon City, police agents blocked about 400 University of the Philippines students and professors who were on their way to join the rally. In some places in Cavite, buses reportedly "broke down'' and effectively blocked the flow of traffic to Makati. But people were asking why, if the buses developed engine trouble, they were positioned across the road and not parallel to the road.

These are just some of the incidents reported on radio, television and in the newspapers last Friday and Saturday. These acts of the military and the police reduced the number of participants in the rally in the center of the Makati business district.

Also suspicious and highly irregular was the sudden and unprecedented declaration of the Makati Business District as a no-fly zone for the three hours that the rally was scheduled. The Air Transportation Office (ATO) said the notice to airmen was issued "for security reasons so that no one would suspect that those flying by are taking pictures, doing surveillance to identify them [the protesters].'' Suddenly, the administration became sensitive to the sensibilities of protesters!

The temporary ban prevented ABS-CBN from taking shots that would have shown the extent and the size of the crowd. The crowd was definitely much, much larger than the 10,000 to 15,000 estimate of the police.

This administration, its officials and military and police minions will do anything: tell half-truths, lie, kidnap witnesses and probably even kill them-but for the zealous media coverage-and do other immoral and illegal acts to ensure the continuance of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the presidency.

The acts of the military and the police and of air transport officials last Friday violated several human rights provisions of the Constitution and of an international covenant to which the Philippines is a signatory. It is good that the United Opposition is planning to file charges against government officials responsible for preventing participants from various points of Luzon from attending the interfaith rally. We suggest that ABS-CBN also file a complaint against the ATO for declaring the rally site a no-fly zone.

We cannot allow administration, police and military officials to ride roughshod over our right to travel and move freely and to peaceably assemble to ask the government to redress our grievances. We cannot allow these officials to restrict the right of the press—and of the people—to exercise freedom of expression so that they would have access to information that they need to be able to make the right decisions. Surrendering these rights would embolden the Arroyo administration to tighten what is beginning to look like martial law and impose a dictatorship.