SC fined Badoy P30K for contempt for red-tagging Manila judge

A unanimous ruling was issued by the Supreme Court citing former National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson Lorraine Marie Badoy-Partosa for indirect contempt for red-tagging a Manila trial court judge after dismissing the government’s proscription case to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, as terror organizations.

Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, in a 51-page ruling he wrote, the Court imposed a P30,000 fine against Badoy plus a warning that a repetition of the same or similar acts in the future would be dealt with more severe sanctions.

The high bench said that for her vitriolic statements and outright threats against Judge Magdoza-Malagar and the Judiciary, respondent is found guilty of indirect contempt and a monetary.

This as the SC granted the petition filed by law deans and lawyers which include former Philippine Bar Association (PBA) president Rico Domingo, Ateneo Human Rights Center executive director Ray Paolo Santiago, former Ateneo law dean Antonio "Tony" La Viña and Soledad Deriquito-Mawis of the College of Law of Lyceum University, Anna Maria Abad of Adamson University College of Law and Rodel Taton of the Graduate School of Law of San Sebastian College-Recoletos.

The petition stemmed from Badoy's Facebook posts which they said were intended to "assault and humiliate" Regional Trial Court of Manila Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar.  

Judge Magdoza-Malagar issued a resolution on 21 September 2022, dismissing the Department of Justice's petition to proscribe the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group under the Human Security Act (HSA).

Badoy on 23 September 2022, uploaded a public post on her Facebook, titled " A Judgment Straight from the Bowels of Communist Hell," where she launched multiple insults against the judge.

The judge weaponized the court of law to rule in favor of her alleged friends, the CPP-NPA and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF), Badoy said.

A second post on the same day, Badoy uploaded, "The Judge Marlo Malagar Horror Series," where she not only alleged that the Judge did not base her decision on the Constitution, but she even threatened to bomb the offices of judges whom she deemed as "friends of terrorists.”

The following day, Badoy uploaded another Facebook post describing the judge as "unprincipled and rotten" and claiming that her husband was a member of the CPP.

The Court noted that her posts solicited comments, remarks, images, and videos expressing anger towards the judge which she shared on her Facebook page from 23 to 26 September 2022 .

“In this case, this Court wields its contempt power due to the harmful, vicious, and unnecessary manner in which respondent launched her criticism, evident in the immediate after effects her statements had on the public,” it added.