Mayor Benjamin Magalong | Photo byNeil Clark Ongchangco
BAGUIO CITY — Mayor Benjamin Magalong may have forgiven a former government official for describing him as a “communist sympathizer,” shortly after his inclusion in a five-man team tasked to uncover rogue cops inside the Philippine National Police bureaucracy.
In a January 22 online message he gave to alumni of the Philippine Military Academy, the retired police general said, “After an unfortunate tirade these past few days against my character, I am grateful that the dust is beginning to settle and the healing process has started. Much of this is all because of the unwavering support of those who have stood by me, publicly and privately.”
The “tirade” was apparently a reference to a series of commentaries by Lorraine Marie Badoy and Jeffrey Celiz questioning his appointment to the five-man team that would review the careers and lifestyles of all senior police officials. The commentaries were aired by the Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), owned by Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
Badoy, a former undersecretary and spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), first attacked Magalong in March last year after the mayor ordered the removal of tarpaulins that harass Baguio students and activists for their alleged ties to communist rebels. The unfounded accusations put their lives at risk. The students had informed Magalong in a March 12, 2022 dialogue.
In his message, which was sent to the Inquirer on Wednesday (Jan. 25), Magalong said: “In all the decisions that I have made in my public life, I have always been guided by the principles that I have learned from my Alma Mater, the PMA – Courage, Integrity and Loyalty… Let us move on and join together in affirming our common commitment to free our country of communist terrorists, Islamist terrorists and drugs, a legacy that we need to pass on to the next generation.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Magalong led a commemorative service for 44 police officers of the Special Action Force who were killed in the government’s bungled operation to capture a Malaysian bombmaker on Jan. 25, 2015, in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. The ceremony was held at Camp John Hay which has put up a memorial to 14 of the slain SAF members from the Cordillera.
Magalong led a board of inquiry that faulted top-ranking police officials, including the late president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, for the fiasco.