Justifying the red-tagging of activists and electric cooperatives as members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), its military arm, the New People’s Army (NPA), and the coalition of progressive groups, the National Democratic Front (NDF), Lorraine Badoy repeats a misleading claim that the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that being identified as members of the communist movement poses “no danger to life, liberty, security for the people.”
STATEMENT
In the May 3 episode of Laban Kasama ang Bayan aired on Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), Badoy, former spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, and self-proclaimed former NPA officer Jeffrey Celiz alleged, without presenting any evidence, that the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) and the National Electrification Administration (NEA), a government-owned and controlled corporation, are “infiltrated” by the CPP-NPA-NDF.
SMNI anchor Franco Baranda then chimed in and said in Filipino that “they know that since the very beginning, almost all sectors have been infiltrated by the CPP-NPA-NDF,” but now they are naming names, to which Badoy replied:
“Napapanindigan natin ‘yung mga pangalan na ‘yon at saka wala namang – wala tayong nilalabag na batas doon.”
(We stand by those names and we are not violating any laws by doing that.)
Source: SMNI Youtube Channel, LIVE: Laban Kasama ang Bayan, May 3, 2023, watch from 16:21 to 16:26
She added:
“Ang sinabi ng Supreme Court there is no danger to life, liberty and security when you’re identified as a member of the CPP-NPA-NDF.”
Source: watch from 16:26 to 16:35
FACT
The Supreme Court did not say this in Zarate vs. Aquino, the case that Badoy was referring to. What the High Court ruled was that “mere membership in organizations or sectors” mentioned in the case – including progressive groups Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Karapatan, and Bayan Muna – “cannot equate to an actual threat that would warrant the issuance of a writ of amparo.”
Badoy had red-tagged BENECO at least twice in 2022, prompting the organization to publish a statement in September last year.
“We dare publicly summon LORRAINE MARIE T. BADOY-PARTOSA to provide us the information which she said was in her possession during the program. She has to produce them and prove the truth of her accusation. It was an outright peroration that besmirched BENECO’s reputation before its Member Consumer Owners who reside in towns and communities that the electric cooperative has so fervently served since 1973,” the statement read.
In December last year, the Baguio Chronicle fact-checked Badoy when she claimed without basis that BENECO is the “milking cow” of the CPP-NPA-NDF.
BACKSTORY
BENECO is an electric cooperative granted by the NEA “the sole franchise to operate an electric light and power service in the City of Baguio and Benguet province for a period of fifty (50) years,” or until 2028. The NEA oversees the performance of 121 electric cooperatives as power providers.
The late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. converted the NEA into a wholly owned and controlled corporation of the government less than a year after he declared martial law in the country in 1972.
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Sources
SMNI Youtube Channel, LIVE: Laban Kasama ang Bayan | May 3, 2023, May 3, 2023
Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO), About, Accessed May 9, 2023
National Electrification Administration (NEA), About NEA, Accessed May 9, 2023
LawPhil, G.R. No. 220028, Nov. 10, 2015
iMPACT Leadership Twitter Account, “Serial Red-tagger…”, Oct. 14, 2022
The Baguio Chronicle, FACT CHECK: BENECO is a milking cow for the CPP-NPA-NDF, Dec. 8, 2022
Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO), WE ARE NOT WHAT YOU SAID WE ARE, Sept. 28, 2022
National Electrification Administration (NEA), NEA 2022 Annual Report, March 2023
Official Gazette of the Philippines, P.D. No. 269, Aug. 6, 1973
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
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