CHIEF Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo on Thursday assured judges that the Supreme Court (SC) will always protect them from all forms of threats and harassment.

Gesmundo issued the statement amid the intense public backlash over the “red-tagging” by former spokesperson of the anti-communist task force Lorraine Badoy of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar.

“While it is our constitutional duty to supervise our lower courts, it is our moral duty to protect each of you and ensure that you are able to perform your duties free from any threat, harassment, undue influence, coercion, and, certainly, any form of violence.”

“You can count on us,” Gesmundo said during the second day of the Annual Convention of the Metropolitan and City Trial Judges Association of the Philippines (METCJAP) at Hennan Regency Resort and Spa in Boracay Island, Aklan.

According to Gesmundo, the high tribunal is “very serious about protecting our frontliners.”

In her Facebook post last September 23, Badoy blasted Magdoza-Malagar for dismissing the government’s proscription case against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).

Badoy likewise accused Magdoza-Malagar of “lawyering” for the CPP-NPA, and called her a “friend and true ally” of the Reds.

She also wrote on Facebook: “If I kill this judge and I do so out of my political belief that all allies of the CPP NPA NDF [National Democratic Front] 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.”

Badoy, later on, disowned the post.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Hector Lawas