Black Friday Protest in Luneta

We were blessed with a cloudless, sunny day. Enteng and I were in contact early, confirming our plans for later in the afternoon. Both of us were unsure about how many we would ultimately be, as we had sent out the call via our blogs, text, and email and had not requested confirmation. The last three silent protest actions had, at most, twenty two people, and that was last Black Friday. And since our target area was still the City of Manila, we were a little uneasy.

There was a reason as to our choice - we had to defend our rights to free speech and peaceful assembly in the same city wherein these freedoms were assaulted. There was no intent to provoke confrontation, so we made sure our movements would not be misconstrued as aggressive. Everyone had five different assembly points to choose from, would proceed from them in small groups to our final destination, the Rizal Monument, the point from which all our roads extend.

And so we began our short stroll, in twos and threes. When we finally assembled, there were at least 120 of us, dressed mainly in black, many wearing the now famous "Patalsikin Na! Now Na!" tee shirts. Some of the participants were pleasantly surprised to see each other, so there was a lot of greeting and catching up. It took some effort for Enteng to get us to group together for pictures, we were so busy taking our own.

By far, the most pleasant surprise was the absence of any WPD personnel. The Rizal Monument color guard was there, of course, but they ignored us. Park security even obliged us by taking our pictures. This Friday could not have been more different from last Friday.

After the final pictures were taken, the media interviews over, some of us stopped to admire the view and pay our respects to Gat Jose Rizal. A fitting way to end a peaceful day of protest.