Badoy sued for red-tagging health workers

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential Communications and Operations Office Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy is facing another complaint for supposedly red-tagging a group of health workers.

In its complaint filed yesterday before the Office of the Ombudsman, the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) said Badoy must be investigated for administrative offenses of grave misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a public official.

The group called on the ombudsman to place Badoy under preventive suspension pending results of the probe.

The complainant said if probable cause is found, the ombudsman should order Badoy’s dismissal from public service, cancel her civil service eligibility and disqualify her from holding government office.

“Badoy is a government employee. Under the Civil Service Commission rules, a government officer must not use his or her position to red-tag or to malign any organization without proof,” AHW national president Robert Mendoza said in an interview on ANC.

“Without any proof, she made an accusation that our organization is a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA),” Mendoza added.

The complaint stemmed from Badoy’s article published on the Philippine News Agency site on April 7, 2021.

She said the AHW was among the organizations created by the CPP-NPA and National Democratic Front (NDF) for “infiltration of the government.”

The group also cited a press release issued by Badoy on April 12, 2021 wherein she tagged Mendoza and AHW secretary general Benjamin Santos as “operatives and cadres” of the CPP-NPA-NDF.

The filing of the complaint coincided with the observance of World Health Day yesterday.