IBP, PJA condemn red-tagging of Judge Malagar

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the Philippine Judges Association (PJA) on Monday condemned the red-tagging and harassment of Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar. The judge had earlier junked a four-year proscription case to judicially declare the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), as terrorist groups.

While the IBP did not mention the harasser’s name, its statement was issued after Judge Malagar was criticized by Lorraine Badoy, former spokesperson for the government’s anti-communist task force NTF-ELCAC, in her recent Facebook post for her September 21, 2022 decision denying the petition for proscription filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking to declare the CPP-NPA as terrorist groups.

Badoy went so far as to call the judge a “friend and true ally” of the communist groups and branded her decision as a “judgement straight from the bowels of communist hell.”

Badoy also brazenly wrote in her post: “If I kill this judge and I do so out of my political belief that all allies of the CPP NPA NDF must be killed because there is no difference in my mind between a member of the CPP NPA NDF and their friends, then please be lenient with me.”

Following a backlash from various sectors, Badoy disowned the post and branded it as “fake news.”

But what Badoy didn’t count on was for netizens to keep “receipts.”

“On September 21, 2022, the Honorable Judge Marlo Apalisok Magdoza-Malagar of the Regional Trial Court of Manila, Branch 9 dismissed a petition for proscription filed by the government to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army as terrorist groups. Immediately thereafter, the Honorable Judge herself became the subject of online attacks and even threats in social media for her dismissal of the said petition, with one reportedly threatening her with bodily harm, while the rest accusing her of being an ally or friend of the CPP-NPA,” the IBP statement read.

“The Integrated Bar of the Philippines condemns the abuse, harassment and outright red-tagging of another member of the Judiciary. These capricious and dishonest statements go beyond reasonable discussion. They foment vitriol and hate against our judges,” it added.

The IBP said attacking members of the judiciary and threatening them with bodily harm is not normal.

“The judiciary’s job is to decide disputes and no judge should ever feel threatened just by performing that duty,” the IBP stressed.

In a separate statement, the PJA said any baseless attack on a judge in whatever manner “is an assault on democracy.

“We remind everyone that individuals, including judges, have protected constitutional rights, and personal attacks and threats against them and the judiciary should never be tolerated,” the PJA said.

The PJA also went on to call on the government to “declare that in no time under its watch, will democracy be imperiled by an irresponsible and unfounded assault on a trial judge.”

Earlier, a group of trial court judges, and Hukom also condemned the red-tagging of Judge Malagar, saying such may be considered as an attack on the independence of the judiciary.

The group urged its fellow judges “not to normalize the use of violence against any person as a form of redress” by not speaking up against it.