AN organization of trial court judges broke its silence last Sunday to denounce the continued red-tagging and harassment of the members of the judiciary.
In a statement, Hukom called on all the judges to speak up and not to allow themselves to be victims of such attacks.
The group issued the statement after the red-tagging of Regional Trial Court Branch 19 Presiding Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar by Lorraine Badoy, the former spokesman for the government’s anti-communist task force.
Malagar, whom the group described as a “respected, upright and competent” judge, recently issued a decision junking the petition for prescription filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), as terrorist groups.
The judge held that the alleged atrocities committed by the groups, which were offered as evidence of DOJ, cannot be considered as terrorist acts as defined under Sections 3 and 17 of Republic Act 9372 or the Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007.
However, in her lengthy Facebook post last September 23, Badoy slammed the judge for the decision and even called her a “friend and true ally” of the communist groups.
She also called the judge’s decision as a “judgment straight from the bowels of communist hell.”
Badoy also 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.”
However, in her succeeding Facebook posts, Badoy disowned the post and branded it as “fake news” following backlash from the various sectors.
“We, members of Hukom Inc. an organization of trial court judges, view these acts (e.g., red-tagging, online vilification, doxing, etc.) as attacks on the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary,” Hukom said.
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.
“We cannot rest easy and accept them as normal and ordinary. These acts must be called out because of their chilling effect on the exercise of our judicial functions and the lasting damage they cause to our institution,” the group said.
“As members of the Bench, we call on our fellow judges: let us refuse to be victims. Let us not normalize the use of violence against persons as a form of redress by being silent,” it added.