60,000 people at anti-rh rally – researcher

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A researcher, using crowd estimation analysis, finally puts an end to the debate on how many people really attended the anti-RH Bill rally last Saturday, by pegging the number of people at 60,000.

60,000-strong at its height

Dr. Quirino Sugon of the Manila Observatory, a research institute that includes high-resolution population mapping and land-use mapping as its services, said in his blog,  even with only 4 persons/sq. m., the crowd would have numbered 60, 180 persons at its height at 5.00 p.m.

Using a crowd estimation method, Dr. Quirino Sugon, estimated the Prayer Power Rally crowd to be around 60,000. (Photo Credit: www.monkshobbit.wordpress.com)

According to Dr.Sugon , who used aerial shots of the EDSA Shrine crowd, the crowd was not loosely packed and even if there were only 3 persons/sq.m. that would be the equivalent of 45,000 – a far cry from the Philippine Star and Yahoo! News’ 10,000 estimate and Alliance France Press (AFP) figure of 7,000.

Philippine National Police’s EDP Ground Commander event estimated the crowd to be around 40,000.

Aerial shots analyzed

Dr. Quirino used equivalent rectangular analysis and looked at aerial shots of the EDSA Shrine crowd.

He used the rules of this particular method:

- In a loose crowd, space covered by one person is 10 sq. ft.

- With more people, it would be half, or one person/5 sq. ft. or 2.2 persons/sq.m.

- In a really tight crowd, space gets smaller with 2.5 sq. ft. or 4.3 persons/sq.m.

According to Dr. Quirino’s calculations, the length of the area covered by the crowd had a length of 885 m. and a width of 17 m. for a total area of 15,045 sq.m.

Overflow of people

Clarke Nebrao, who vehemently defended a bigger figure for the crowd estimate on social networks like Facebook, said official estimates did not even include the overflow of people on the footbridge across the EDSA Shrine, the entrance of Corinthian Gardens, a subdivision along EDSA, the La Salle Greenhills area and the vicinity of White Plains where supporters also stayed.

Nebrao came along with the +Big Movement, a movement of Bl. Pedro Calungsod, and the Catholic Association of Lay Missionaries.

Sugon added, at any given time also, a good number of rallyists were going to nearby Robinson’s galleria to use restrooms or grab refreshments. [Nirva’ana Ella Delacruz]