By Clarist Zablan
(September 21, 2023) – The anti-graft Ombudsman has reprimanded two former officials of the anti-insurgency task force in a case stemming from their “red-tagging” of human rights lawyers.
In a 17-page decision, the Ombudsman found retired Army general Antonio Parlade Jr. and Lorraine Badoy guilty of “conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service” during their stint as National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) under former president Rodrigo Duterte.
“The above-mentioned respondents are sternly warned that a repetition of a similar offense would be dealt with more severely,” the decision read.
But the office threw out the administrative complaint against former National Security Adviser and retired army general Hermogenes Esperon.
Excerpts of the decision, dated March 23, were released to the public by complainant National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) on Thursday.
NUPL, an organization of human rights lawyers, filed the administrative complaint against Badoy, Parlade, and Esperon in 2020, accusing the officials of “red-tagging” the group’s officers and members. The group wanted the three officials to be dismissed.
The group’s chairman, Edre Olaila, expressed “mixed reactions” over the Ombudsman’s ruling.
“While we did not achieve the full legal redress and it seems like a pyrrhic victory as it fell short of our plea for complete legal accountability … the Decision sustaining our legal procedural recourse, the finding of guilt for Conduct Prejudicial to the Interest of the Service and the categorical reprimand to Gen. Parlade and a certain Ms. Badoy can be viewed as a loud warning shot, as it were,” Olalia said in a statement.
Badoy and Parlade have been facing numerous criminal and administrative complaints over their “red-tagging” or the linking of civilian activists, human rights advocates, journalists, and humanitarian workers to the communist rebellion.
Local and international human rights organizations have voiced concerns over the growing incidents of red-tagging in the Philippines, which they feared have exposed the victims to harassment, attacks and in some cases killings.
(MM)
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