By JOEY NATIVIDAD

BicolToday.com

NAGA– Detained Ateneo student Emmanuel Pio Mijares was released on bail late Friday afternoon, June 13.

A total of P8,000 was posted as bail. He is charged with violation of Articles 153 and 148 of the Revised Penal Code, or tumults and other disturbances of public order, and assault upon an agent of a person in authority.

Mijares, a psychology student of Ateneo de Naga University, came out of Naga City jail amid the cheering crowd of fellow student activists and friends.

Mijares became an overnight celebrity and “hero” after he was beaten up and detained by Presidential security men and police for disrupting President Benigno Aquino III’s speech on Independence Day. Mijares shouted, “Patalsikin ang Pork Barrel King! Walang pagbabago sa Pilipinas!” (Oust the Pork Barrel King! Nothing changed in the Philippines!) while holding a banner with the words “Oust PNoy,” “Scrap all forms of pork,” and “DAP ibasura.” (Junk DAP).

Judge Nonna O. Beltran gave out the order for Mijares’s temporary liberty. Beltran is the vice-executive judge of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities, 5th Judicial Region, Naga City.

According to witnesses, Mijares was forcibly dragged by Presidential Security Group personnel and police, and was forced to swallow the whole cloth banner, which was confiscated from him.

His lawyers, Luis Ruben General and Ricky Tomotorgo, are planning to file a case of illegal detention against the police for exceeding more than 12 hours of allowable period of detention without charges. BicolToday.com / Posted by Bulatlat.com