EDITORIAL - Badoy’s threat cannot be let off lightly

Dissatisfied over a ruling issued by a judge who said that the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) cannot be declared terrorists, former government official and anti-communist advocate Lorraine Badoy did not just red-tag the judge, she also threatened to kill her.

In a post, Badoy allegedly accused Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar of lawyering for the CPP-NPA and asked for people to be lenient with her if she kills this judge.

“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,” she allegedly wrote.

To her credit, Badoy denied coming up with the post.

Like Badoy, we may not agree with the judge’s decision, but that is not the issue we want to raise here. If she indeed made the post, it becomes the issue about how easily she finds it to threaten a member of the judiciary.

This isn’t Badoy’s first time to red-tag someone. Frankly, it’s not really that surprising anymore. After all, she was the spokeswoman of the former National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), a group that specialized more in branding innocent people as communists rather than carrying out its redundant mandate.

Badoy continues to view the world in black and white, without any shades of gray. That those who are not for one thing are immediately for another. That there is only us and them. That there are only communists and those who aren’t.

But the threat to kill the judge is something new, coming from her. It was also more than just a threat to endanger one person, Badoy also threatened how the system of justice works in this country by implying that we should just take justice into our own hands, vindicated by our individual political beliefs.

We wonder what gives Badoy the courage to go on doing what she does. This deserves more than just a slap on the wrist. If she indeed went public with that post, she must not be allowed to get away with making such a statement so easily or so lightly. The rule of law must always be respected, whether one agrees with a ruling or not.