Lorraine Badoy after red-tagging civil suit loss: ‘Fight isn’t over’

FILE PHOTO: Lorraine Badoy during the hybrid hearing of the Senate committee on national defense and security, peace, unification and reconciliation, Tuesday, December 1, 2020, on the issue of red-tagging/red-baiting of certain celebrities, personalities, institutions, and organizations. (Albert Calvelo/ Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — Lorraine Badoy, an ex-spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), is not giving up the fight just yet after losing in a red-tagging civil suit to broadcast journalist Atom Araullo.

For her, the fight has “just started,” asserting in a statement Friday, “I am standing tall and unwavering as we exhaust all legal remedies until we reach the highest court of the land if need be to score this legal victory for our country.”

“To be clear, I am not paying [P2 million] at this point [because] this is under appeal,” she added in another message to the media also on Friday.

READ: Atom Araullo wins red-tagging civil suit vs Badoy, Celiz

In a decision dated Dec. 12, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 306 found Badoy and ex-communist rebel Jeffrey Celiz guilty and ordered them to jointly and severally pay a total of P2.07 million to Araullo for violating several provisions of the Civil Code.

This case came about after the two tagged Araullo as a member of the communist movement, hence, red-tagging.

Araullo and his mother, Carol Araullo, chair emeritus of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), were targets of red-tagging sprees by Badoy and Celiz on their show “Laban Kasama ng Bayan” (Fighting Alongside the Country) broadcast on the Sonshine Media Network International since 2022.

Atom Araullo was branded a “spawn” of an active Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) central committee leader, and was also accused of orchestrating attacks against the government supposedly by producing content aligned with the propaganda of the New People’s Army (NPA), the CPP’s armed wing.

In its ruling, the lower court says that remarks of Badoy and Celiz “were aimed at damaging the plaintiff’s reputation and credibility, both as a person and as a journalist, by associating him with the CPP-NPA-NDF (National Democratic Front) without proof.”

“These labels and remarks went beyond mere editorial opinion or fair commentary and, worse, incited backlash, threats, and public hatred toward the plaintiff,” the court adds.

READ: Lorraine Badoy is guilty of indirect contempt for red-tagging judge — SC

Badoy, however, argued that she lost the case “on technicality.”

“[W]e had expected this from the very start when we were prevented from presenting our evidence in court because my earlier lawyer, Atty. Mark Tolentin, failed to give my pre-trial brief on time,” she asserted.

“In other words, we didn’t lose this case because Carol Araullo is not a member of the CPP NPA NDF. I lost this case on a mere technicality,” Badoy said.

She further stressed in her statement that she was “not disheartened” by the decision, calling it a “minor hiccup” to the anti-insurgency campaign.

“My faith in the judiciary remains unshaken. Indeed I firmly believe it is in the legal arena where the death blows to this terrorist organization will be dealt,” she said.

Badoy was a spokesperson of the NTF-Elcac and an undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office during the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

She has tagged a roster of personalities as members of the communist movement including former Vice President Leni Robredo, Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray, and Maginhawa Community Pantry founder Patricia Non.

Last February, the Supreme Court found her guilty of indirect contempt for red-tagging a Manila Regional Trial Court judge.