House probe sought on jailed ex-army general’s TV interview

PARTY-LIST representatives filed a House resolution Monday calling for a probe on an interview by a broadcasting network together with a member of the government’s anti-communist task force of a jailed former military general who was convicted for the kidnapping and disappearance of two university students.

House Resolution 2546 calls on the House Committee on Human Rights to conduct an investigation into Sonshine Media Network International’s (SMNI) interview with convict Jovito S. Palparan, Jr. together with the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), without permission from the Department of Justice (DoJ).

“In the interview, Palparan was freely given a platform to attack the trial court’s decision convicting him,” Bayan Muna legislators said in their resolution.

They also cited that NTF-ELCAC spokesperson Lorraine T. Badoy, who was one of the interviewers, “even explicitly claimed that the interview (was) made to ‘vindicate’ Palparan, who she falsely claimed as a victim of ‘trumped up’ charges.”

SMNI is being “used by the NTF-ELCAC for red-tagging programs against activists and progressives,” the lawmakers added.

Complaints have been filed against Ms. Badoy before the Ombudsman for allegedly spreading fake news and labeling groups and personalities as terrorists without proof, also known as red-tagging.

Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said via Viber on Tuesday that the department is “still waiting” for the Bureau of Corrections report on possible violations of prison rule by Palparan.

Ms. Badoy and SMNI have yet to respond to requests for comment via Viber and email, respectively. — Jaspearl Emerald G. Tan