By Benjamin Cuaresma
MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) has asked the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to investigate what it described as the continued red-tagging of the group and its members by physician Lorraine Badoy despite her six-month suspension from practicing medicine.
In a manifestation with an urgent motion, the AHW urged the PRC to determine whether Badoy’s subsequent public statements constitute additional violations of the ethical and professional standards governing physicians.
The group said Badoy continued to identify the AHW as a supposed front of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA) and National Democratic Front (NDF) through posts on her Facebook account, “Lorraine Baddie.”
The AHW said the statements were made after the PRC Board of Medicine’s May 8 resolution suspending Badoy became public in June.
The Board of Medicine had found Badoy liable for violating the Revised Code of Ethics of the Medical Profession over what it described as statements made with “bad faith and malice” against the AHW and community physician Natividad “Doc Naty” Castro.
The administrative case arose from complaints filed in 2022 concerning Badoy’s repeated accusations against health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rather than retracting her statements, Badoy maintained that she had correctly identified the AHW as a front of the CPP-NPA-NDF during her previous tenure as strategic communications cluster head of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
In a June 28 Facebook post, Badoy argued that the characterization was not merely her personal opinion but reflected what she described as the official position of the Philippine government.
She also said the PRC did not rule that her declarations were false, but found that she had not presented formal documentation from the appropriate government agencies when she made the statements.
Badoy further said she deliberately chose not to appeal the PRC ruling, citing what she described as “bigger battles” facing the country.
The following day, she tagged an Inquirer report on the disciplinary action as “fake news,” even though the report cited the PRC decision.
The AHW said Badoy subsequently made similar statements on July 5 and July 7, prompting the group to ask the PRC to determine whether the posts amounted to new violations despite the disciplinary action already imposed.
AHW national president Bonifacio Carmona Jr. said the continued statements raise questions about whether the PRC sanction had been sufficiently observed.
He called for an urgent determination of whether Badoy’s subsequent conduct warrants another disciplinary action under the rules governing the medical profession.
AHW secretary general Cristy Donguines also warned of what she described as the potentially serious consequences of continued red-tagging against health workers.
She said health workers already face difficult working conditions, including heavy workloads, inadequate resources, low pay and job insecurity, while continuing to provide medical services to the public.
The latest AHW complaint adds another layer to Badoy’s previous legal and regulatory controversies arising from her public statements.
In February 2024, the Supreme Court found Badoy guilty of indirect contempt over her red-tagging of a Manila judge who had dismissed the government’s petition seeking to declare the CPP-NPA as terrorist organizations. The court imposed a P30,000 fine and warned of a more severe penalty should she commit the same or a similar act in the future.
In December 2024, a Quezon City court also ordered Badoy and her Sonshine Media Network International cohost Jeffrey Celiz to pay broadcast journalist Atom Araullo P2 million in damages over red-tagging allegations involving Araullo and his mother.
The AHW’s latest filing now asks the PRC to examine whether Badoy’s statements made after her suspension warrant separate action by the medical profession’s regulatory body.
ia/xf
