ACT slams Badoy over ‘mad tirade’

Gov’t exec Red-tags progressive groups

A teachers’ group has criticized Lorraine Badoy, undersecretary for the Presidential Communications Operations Office, for going on a “mad tirade” against government employees’ unions and organizations.

“If not for ordinary government employees’ service and sacrifice, the people will not have access to any form of service from the Duterte administration that continues to fail by any measure in quelling one of the gravest health and economic crises to ever beset our country,” the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said in a statement on Sunday.

In her April 7 column on the state-owned news website Philippine News Agency, Badoy accused progressive groups such as ACT and the Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) of “destroying the government from within.” She also reiterated that Courage was a front organization of the communist insurgency.

DILG memo

Last month, the two groups became targets of the government’s Red-tagging spree through a memorandum issued by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

The DILG memo, which was signed by Assistant Secretary Alexander Macario on March 10, identified ACT and Courage as “communist terror group front [organizations]” and instructed regional directors to identify who among their ranks were members of these groups.

Badoy said in her column that this was “what any responsible government agency that is in danger of communist terrorist infiltration” should do.

But ACT pointed out that Badoy, who is also the spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), did not present any evidence linking the two organizations to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).

Evidence of crimes

“Unlike Badoy, we actually have evidence of their crimes. Not only will we continue our rightful struggles, we will also come for them and make them pay for their violations of people’s rights and liberties,” ACT said, referring to the government and the NTF-Elcac.

In February, the group reported that the NTF-Elcac had been conducting orientations in public schools with its speakers labeling ACT as a front of the CPP-NPA.

The speakers also showed photos of ACT members during their presentation, it added.

“Democratic rights of not only educators but of the youth and the Filipino people as a whole—these are what ACT stands for. Our track record— which [is] literally publicly and officially known—will prove as much about us. We can’t say the same for Badoy, the NTF-Elcac, and the rest of the Duterte government ...,” ACT said.

“The time of reckoning is near. As more of us stand against state terrorism, the weaker the position of those seated in power becomes,” it added.