Badoy rejects call to resign: ‘I have not deceived the Filipino people’

MANILA, Philippines – Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy on Wednesday dismissed the Makabayan bloc’s call for her to resign, saying she shouldn’t be the one to step down because she had never deceived Filipinos.

Badoy made that statement in a Facebook post in reaction to members of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives, who had previously asked him to resign for unfounded red tagging them.

“As for the representatives of the Makabayan bloc who ask for my resignation, I would be very disappointed in myself and see as an insufficiency in the performance of my work if they did not ask for anything less,” Badoy said in his post.

“Also, I am not the one who has to resign because I have not deceived the Filipino people or done anything to hurt them. I come to the table with clean hands and a heart as pure as I can, ”he added.

Members of the Makabayan bloc, represented in the House by lawmakers from the ACT Teachers party list, Bayan Muna, Gabriela and Kabataan, called for the official’s resignation after the House Appropriation Committee hearing on the proposed budget for 2021 from the Office of Presidential Communications Operations. (PCOO).

Badoy is undersecretary of the PCOO and at the same time spokesman for the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

Over the weekend, Badoy asked legislators from the Makabayan bloc to abandon the title of “legislator” and admit to being high-ranking members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). .

Bayan Muna representative Carlos Zarate and ACT teacher representative Francia Castro raised the issue during the PCOO budget hearing on Wednesday. Castro also proposed the suspension of the hearing, which further delayed the discussions.

Zarate, Castro and Gabriela representative Arlene Brosas said that PCOO’s budget should be examined if one of its officials was involved in the red label.

“If Usec. Badoy will continue to use his position and taxpayer money to criminalize dissent; he might as well leave his post. His unfounded accusations against activists and legal organizations are dangerous, especially in this political climate where activists who are voicing the demands of crisis-affected Filipinos were tagged, illegally arrested and even killed, ”Brosas said.

Badoy responded that Makabayan should stop filing cases of red labeling, as it has not been shown to cause substantial harm to people who had been labeled red.

However, previously, the Human Rights Commission (CHR) said that the red tag played a role in cases where activists were killed, injured or harassed.

Zárate recently filed a complaint against Badoy with the Ombudsman’s Office for a red label, months after Ibon, an expert organization, filed another red label complaint against her.

“The Makabayan Bloc Representatives should give this red-label burden a break. We can no longer count the number of times the government has been sued for relabeling. They have done it in all administrations, “Badoy said in his Facebook post. “And each time, our courts would dismiss it for lack of merit.”

“All of the petitions they have filed against the government have failed the substantial evidence test,” he added. “In other words, our courts have already ruled that membership in the red-tagged organization is not an actionable threat,” he said. “In even more specific terms, there is no evidence that being with the communists is a threat to his life.”

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