485 lawyers join SC plea for protection vs Badoy
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Some 485 lawyers called on the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday to also take action on the social media attacks against their colleagues by former National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) Spokesperson Lorraine Marie T. Badoy.
The 485 lawyers who signed the letter lauded the SC for issuing a stern warning against those who incite violence against judges and their families and informing the public that they could be cited in contempt of court.
READ: SC warns: Anyone red-tagging, threatening judges may be cited for contempt
“We look forward to the specific action that the Honorable Court will finally take on the matter to exact accountability from Ms. Badoy and others,” the 485 lawyers led by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) said in a letter addressed to Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court.
“We also hope that the Court will address Ms. Badoy’s attacks against human rights lawyers, which were part of her attacks against Judge Malagar,” they added.
Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar became the subject of a social media post by Badoy after she dismissed the government’s bid to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as a terrorist organization.
In her post, she called Magdoza-Malagar an “idiot judge” who lawyers for the CPP-NPA. She also made a hypothetical situation about her “killing” the judge, but she can beg for leniency because it was done because of her political belief. The post has been deleted and denied.
READ: Judge attacked online for junking terror tag on CPP-NPA
Badoy, in a separate post, asked why was Magdoza-Malagar “so well-versed” about the Constitution of the CPP-NPA, that only its members should have knowledge of? She also mentioned human rights lawyers Edre Olalia, Maria Sol Taulle and Rachel Pastores, asking if they were the one’s who wrote her decision.
Meanwhile, the lawyers said that they “intend to discuss with our colleagues specific actions that members of the Bar could take to contribute to the many efforts to put an end to the culture of impunity and disrespect for the rule of law in our country.”
“We stand with our Judiciary in its efforts to ensure that ours will always be a society of rules, of democratic and critical discourse, and one that protects human rights,” they declared.
