Serial red-taggers
It came four years late, but the order of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) suspending controversial Duterte administration mouthpiece Lorraine Marie T. Badoy from medical practice is still a welcome move against those putting people’s lives at risk through red-tagging.
The PRC Board of Medicine imposed a six-month suspension on Badoy for her statements and online posts in 2021 and 2022, persistently red-tagging members of the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) as members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF). Badoy, in particular, tagged community physician Dr. Ma. Natividad “Naty” Castro as an alleged active member, recruiter, trainer, and fundraiser of the CPP-NPA-NDF.
Badoy, a licensed physician and political vlogger, was more notoriously known as the former spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), who had a penchant for labeling perceived Duterte critics as communist members or sympathizers. Red-tagging has been linked to the killings of several militant activists and has made journalists, doctors, judges, lawyers, and even entertainers targets of threats and harassment.
Unethical and unprofessional
In contesting the case filed against her before the PRC, Badoy said she had a duty to inform the public about the activities of CPP-NPA-NDF organizations. She claimed that the AHW was “created to actually advance the interests of the communist terrorists’ group.”
But the PRC board said there were no official documents presented to prove the AHW’s alleged link to the CPP-NPA-NDF. Badoy’s statements spawned “alarming responses” that threatened members of the AHW, the PRC board said, noting that this happened in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic when health workers were on the frontlines of the fight against the deadly virus.
Accordingly, the PRC found Badoy guilty of “unethical and unprofessional conduct” and violating the code of ethics of the medical profession. And while Badoy’s actions were not connected with the medical profession, the board said she must still be held administratively liable for tarnishing the image of medical practitioners.
“That principle is vital,” said Tony La Viña, Movement Against Disinformation president and counsel for the complainants. “Public speech may be free, but a professional who uses status, platform and office to attach dangerous labels to real people must answer to professional standards,” he said.
Biggest blow
It was not the first time that Badoy was censured for red-tagging. In February 2024, the Supreme Court found Badoy guilty of indirect contempt for red-tagging Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar for junking the government’s petition to declare the CPP-NPA a terrorist organization.
For her “vitriolic statements and outright threats” against the judge, the high court slapped Badoy with a P30,000 fine and a warning of a more severe penalty the next time around.
The biggest blow to Badoy’s notoriety was served by a Quezon City court in December 2024, when broadcast journalist Alfonso “Atom” Araullo won a P2.07-million civil suit against her and self-proclaimed former communist rebel Jeffrey Celiz for red-tagging him and her mother, veteran activist Carol Pagaduan-Araullo.
Indeed, Badoy had single-handedly turned the NTF-Elcac into a dangerous platform for intimidation and putting people in the crosshairs of gunmen.
But with the absence of a law identifying red-tagging as a crime, the recent small victories against this nefarious practice can only go so far. Human rights groups have pointed out that Red-tagging, widespread during the Duterte administration, persists.
Stronger deterrent
In her final report to the United Nations Human Rights Council last week, outgoing UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan noted that freedom of expression in the Philippines was “under attack in multiple ways,” including red-tagging.
With red-tagging contributing to the unfavorable human rights situation in the Philippines, the Marcos administration should heed the call to put its foot down on the practice. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has formally asked Malacañang to issue a comprehensive policy prohibiting Red-tagging and strengthen administrative mechanisms against it.
The CHR made the recommendation after conducting its 2025 national inquiry on the situation of human rights defenders, focusing on red-tagging or the labeling of individuals and groups as communists, terrorists, or enemies of the state, often “without due process and through public and online platforms.” Such practice “exposes individuals to threats, harassment, and violence, and may serve as a precursor to grave human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings,” the CHR said.
Congress, for its part, must act on pending bills to classify red-tagging as a crime to provide a stronger deterrent and penalties for the likes of Badoy and Celiz, who are making a career out of being unrepentant, serial red-taggers.