Rains, loud music keep protesters away from cops (tags)
It rained on their parade, but the band played on. Incessant heavy rains spawned by typhoon "Glenda" and loud music from the Philippine National Police (PNP) band kept hundreds of protesters in Quezon City in check and away from police lines hours before President Arroyo delivered her State of the Nation Address (SONA), a ranking police official said yesterday. The police initially expected the number of protesters to be between 15,000 and 20,000. As of noon yesterday, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) estimated that its delegation totaled 10,000 people.