Former National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson Lorraine Badoy has been ordered by the Supreme Court (SC) to comment on the petition seeking to cite her for indirect contempt.
SC Clerk of Court Marife Lomibao Cuevas has issued a notice dated Oct. 18 that announced that the tribunal has issued a resolution dated Oct. 11 “to require the respondent to comment thereon within a non-extendible period of fifteen (15) days from notice hereof.”
The SC acted on the petition filed by a group of lawyers that includes former Philippine Bar Association president and current Movement Against Disinformation chairman Rico Domingo; former Ateneo de Manila University Law School Dean Antonio Gabriel La Vina; Philippine Association of Law School president and Lyceum of the Philippines College of Law Dean Ma. Soledad Deriquito-Mawis; Adamson University College of Law Dean Anna Maria Abad; and San Sebastian Law Dean Rodel Taton; and lawyers Artemio Calumpong, Christianne Grace Salonga, Ray Paolo Santiago, and Ayn Ruth Tolentino-Azarcon.
The petition was filed in response to Badoy’s social media attacks against Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Marlo Madoza-Malagar over the magistrate’s decision to dismiss the proscription petition of the Department of Justice (DOJ) that sought to declare as terrorists the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
“Such shameless and public behavior towards an honorable public official is not only a conduct that tends to impede, obstruct, or degrade the administration of justice, but is ultimately a direct affront against the dignity, honor, prestige, and independence of the entire judicial system,” reads the petition.
“Given the gravity and hostility displayed by the conduct of Respondent Badoy-Partosa, Petitioners pray that the Respondent be accordingly PUNISHED with the maximum penalty of six (6) months of imprisonment and fined in the maximum amount of Thirty Thousand Pesos (PhP 30,000.00),” the petitioners urged.
Badoy’s social media attacks had targeted Manila Judge Marlo Madoza-Malagar over the magistrate’s decision to dismiss the prosecription petition of the Department of Justice (DOJ) that sought to declare as terrorists the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
“The vicious assault against Manila RTC Judge Malagar has alarmed and shaken both the judicial magistrates and practitioners of law to the core so much so that the Philippine Judges Association (‘PJA’) has referred to the evils of online vilification and red-tagging, sought to be prevented by this Petition, as “undeserved” and ‘life endangerment of a member of the judiciary;,” the petitioners cited.
“Another group of judges, HUKOM, Inc., has likewise viewed the same acts as ‘attacks on the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary’,” they added.
