Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy (File photo)
MANILA – Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy stood by her statement that activist nun Sr. Mary John Mananzan is a “longtime ally” of the National Democratic Front (NDF).
Badoy first made the accusation in a Facebook post last June 17, after Mananzan condemned the conviction of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former researcher-writer Rey Santos of cyber libel.
She said the activist nun was putting forth an ideology of “communism.”
In a statement on Tuesday night, Badoy claimed that Mananzan was the longtime ally of the NDF, political wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), because she was named emeritus chairman of women’s group Gabriela.
Badoy said Gabriela is the legal front of the Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan (Makibaka) for Women, the first feminist organization with a national democratic orientation.
“The National Democratic Front’s task in the CPP NPA NDF is united front building— ‘front’ as in legal front, as in pagbabalatkayo, as in ‘grand deception of the Filipino people’. And this is where Gabriela fits snugly in,” Badoy said.
She added that the NDF is an illegal organization that advocates armed struggle and all the attending atrocities by way of commission or conspiracy to commit rebellion, sedition, or inciting to sedition which are direct violations of the Revised Penal Code.
“This is what Mary John Mananzan has allied herself with. By aligning herself with the NDF and by leading Gabriela for life, Mary John Mananzan agrees with the violent overthrow of government and the destruction of democracy in our country and installation of communism in its stead,” she said.
'Delusional liars'
Badoy shut down remarks by activist groups such as the Movement Against Tyranny (MAT), Karapatan, Gabriela, among others for describing Mananzan as “a pillar of activism” in the country.
“Most days, these delusional liars practice no restraint, throw all humility to the wind and outrightly proclaim themselves ‘defenders of human rights’,” she said.
She also refuted allegations that she has “gone too far” by redtagging Mananzan.
“They think I have gone too far and laid on me the usual accusation of ‘redtagging’— that made-up creature the communist terrorist groups use to silence government and to fascist-tag us,” she said.
Badoy said the atrocities committed by the CPP and its armed wing, New People’s Army (NPA), in the Philippines for the last 50 years are “equivalent of a holocaust.”
“The genocide committed by these terrorists have been spread out over five decades and the work has been cast in shadows and covered in respectability and nobility because of its broad alliances with institutions they’ve deceived into aligning with them like the church, international bodies and reputable NGOs [non-government organizations],” she said. “Conservative estimates on purgings they committed on their own members suspected of being deep penetration agents from 1984 to 1990 run to over 3,000. Satur Ocampo admitted this himself and promised reparations to the victims and their families.”
Despite being hauled to court a number of times by communist fronts, she said cases against her and a number of government officials were thrown out for lack of evidence and failure of the petitioners to present affidavits.
“They themselves know they have no case but they file these cases to embarrass government in media and in the international arena and as a tool they can wave in our faces to silence us when we speak the blinding truth about them,” she said.
Earlier, the MAT called Badoy’s accusations as “wild” and “baseless” and demanded a public apology from her.
Karapatan, meanwhile, said contrary to Badoy’s accusations, Mananzan is a “consistent, steadfast, and feisty human rights advocate.”
The CPP-NPA-NDF is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (PNA)
