A Quezon City court has ruled on the civil suit filed by broadcast journalist Atom Araullo against Lorraine Badoy and Jeffrey Celiz, hosts of a program airing on Apollo Quiboloy’s Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI).
Badoy and Celiz linked Araullo and his mother Carol to the Communist Party of the Philippines, saying they held senior positions in the organization, in a sustained red-tagging campaign until the younger Araullo filed a suit for damages in Sept. 2023.
Judge Dolly-Rose Bolante Prado of the city’s Regional Trial Court Branch 306 ordered Badoy and Celiz to pay P2 million in damages.
“Their remarks were aimed at damaging the plaintiff’s reputation and credibility, both as a person and as a journalist by associating him with the CPP-NPA-NDF without proof,” the decision read.
“These labels and remarks went beyond mere editorial opinion or fair commentary and, worse, incited backlash, threats and public hatred toward the plaintiff.”
No less than the Supreme Court, in a 2023 decision made public this year, has ruled that red-tagging is a form of harassment and intimidation, and is a threat to one’s constitutional right to life, liberty, and security.
While Badoy insists they would continue to fight as she stands “tall and unwavering,” the Araullo case is a significant step toward acknowledging the menace posed by red-tagging, which became rampant in the previous administration of then President Rodrigo Duterte but which has continued even after he stepped down.
Individuals who dare criticize the system, make officials accountable, or champion the rights of the marginalized become convenient targets of red-tagging. Damage to reputation from being branded as communists could be the least of their concerns, because in some cases, the tag puts their safety at risk. Officials, law enforcers, or attack dogs of some political interests could find reasons to detain them and lock them up without basis.
Worse, they could also be made to disappear – far from the watchful eyes of the media or of urban centers, it is easy to claim they were first to pose harm to law enforcers. In such an isolated environment, who can refute the official story?
There remain many political prisoners who have been wrongfully red-tagged and who languish in jail, waiting for a legal way out of their predicament. We can only hope that the wheels of justice turn faster for them too – even if they are not prominent broadcast journalists like Araullo, and even if they are scattered in different parts of the archipelago instead of the capital region, where everything could easily fall under scrutiny.
More importantly, those in the habit of making blanket, baseless accusations against others should rethink their habits. There will be a legal and moral reckoning for this injustice. We only wish it would come faster, as it should.
