CRIMINAL and administrative complaints were filed with the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday against Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy, spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC), for a Facebook post alleging that Vice President Leni Robredo has entered into an alliance with the communists.
For causing undue injury to Robredo and lawmakers in the Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives and showing manifest partiality and evident bad faith, the complainants asked the Ombudsman to charge Badoy with violations of RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, and civil service regulations against electioneering and partisan political activities.
“The post is clearly designed to paint Vice President Robredo as an alleged supporter of terrorism and the activities of the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines), and this attempt at associating her and her campaign to the communist movement without due basis in fact is not the behavior worthy of the post that Undersecretary Badoy occupies as a government official,” the complainants added.
They asked the Ombudsman to place Badoy under preventive suspension until the change of administration on June 30, 2022.
Among the complainants were the chairperson of Gabriela Alliance of Filipino Women, members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, students leaders from National Union of Students of the Philippines, Anakbayan, Kabataan Tayo ang Pag-Asa, UP Diliman Student Council, former Kabataan party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino, and The Daily Tribune editor Pocholo Concepcion.
They attached Badoy’s FB post on May 18, 2002 wherein she claimed that Robredo’s presidential candidacy has been endorsed by the central committee of the CPP in exchange for supposed concessions for which she offered no details.
Badoy’s accusations were carried by the Philippine News Agency and released as a news article online.
The complainants said Badoy is guilty of using the machinery of a state media entity for a partisan political act to favor another candidate.
“Undersecretary Badoy has besmirched the reputation of her fellow public servant in the process by publicly associating the presidential campaign of Vice President Maria Leonor S. Gerona-Robredo with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP),” they said.
