THE Supreme Court on Tuesday warned those who red-tagged and threatened violence against judges and their families that they faced contempt charges and jail time.
The warning came as a lawmaker said the police would investigate the former spokesperson of an anti-communist task force, Lorraine Badoy, for her social media attacks on Manila regional trial court Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar, who had junked the government’s bid to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, terrorist organizations earlier this month.
Earlier, several organizations such as the Philippine Judges Association, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and Hukom Inc. condemned the vilification and red-tagging of Magdoza-Malagar of the Manila RTC Branch 19. Badoy in a Facebook post last Friday accused Magdoza-Malagar of “lawyering” for the CPP-NPA when she ruled that rebellion and political crimes are not acts of terrorism.
The SC responded to Quisumbing-Ignacio’s red-tagging then by issuing a rare, strongly-worded statement condemning threats and killings of lawyers and judges.“We call on the Supreme Court not to let this pass and to take immediate, concrete, and firm action to protect justice actors and the rule of law,” the lawyers said in a statement.
The National Union People’s Lawyers also issued a statement protesting Badoy’s threats. The group’s president Edre U. Olalia said in his Facebook post that the statement was signed by 174 lawyers, including himself. They pointed out that the Badoy’s allegations were “beyond the bounds of fair and reasonable criticism.”