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Badoy denies receiving gag order on community pantry comments


National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson Lorraine Badoy denied receiving a gag order from National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. which prohibited her from commenting on community pantries.

"I asked Secretary Esperon if it's true. I don't recall having a gag order," said Badoy in a report on "24 Oras" on Monday.

"We already made our point across. We already informed the Filipino people what we wanted so we could move forward na," she added.

On Sunday, Esperon said Badoy and Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade, Jr. -- both spokespersons for the NTF-ELCAC -- would be ordered to stop making comments on community pantry initiatives.

In a phone interview with reporters, Esperon, who is also the chairman of the NTF-ELCAC, said Badoy and Parlade would be asked to "desist in the meantime, not to desist as spokespersons, but from making comments about the community pantry issue."

The purpose of the "gag order" was to avoid confusion over the bayanihan initiative.

Esperon added that Badoy and Parlade took the gag order very well as they understood the situation.

"They understand. They also want to support the bayanihan. So if ang sabi nila kung nagiging (if their remarks) are unclear and muddles the perception about community pantry, then they can desist," Esperon said.

Both the NTF-ELCAC and the Quezon City Police District, in their social media posts, linked the community pantry initiative to the communist movement.

With this, on April 20, Ana Patricia Non, organizer of the Maginhawa Community Pantry, announced the temporary closure of the food-sharing initiative. It resumed operations on April 21.

While the QCPD apologized for its social media post, Parlade went on to liken Non and other community pantry workers to Satan deceiving Eve.

Badoy, for her part, accused Non of being a communist.

Parlade also admitted that the NTF-ELCAC was conducting background checks on community pantry organizers. He alleged that the initiatives have been the source of anti-government propaganda.

Senators slammed the linking of community pantry initiatives across the country to the communist insurgency.

The National Privacy Commission also condemned the “unjust” profiling of community pantry organizers. — Angelica Garcia/DVM, GMA News

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