Badoy sued for red-tagging community pantries

MANILA, Philippines — Another complaint was filed yesterday against Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, this time for red-tagging Ana Patricia Non and other community pantry organizers.

Non’s mother, Zen Bernardo, filed the complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday, coinciding with the anniversary of the Maginhawa community pantry put up by Non on April 14, 2021.

Non’s initiative to provide food and other relief items to the poor was replicated in many parts of the country and abroad.

“Badoy’s acts of red-tagging and disseminating false news online and offline against organizers of community pantries constitute disinformation, abuse as well as misuse of official authority and public resources, and worse, endangerment of the lives and safety of ordinary citizens,” the complaint read.

Bernardo said Badoy, who is also the spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), must be investigated for administrative, civil and criminal liability.

Bernardo asked the ombudsman to place Badoy under preventive suspension while government prosecutors are looking into the complaint.

Bernardo cited in the complaint an infographic from Facebook page “Peace Philippines,” which the NTF-ELCAC shared in its Facebook account in April last year.

The infographic apparently linked community pantries to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front.

Bernardo wants Badoy to be held liable for torture and persecution under Republic Act 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and other Crimes Against Humanity.