Detained anchors of embattled network SMNI Lorraine Badoy and Jeffrey Celiz will go on hunger strike to protest their detention at the House of Representatives.
Badoy and Celiz are both cited in contempt by lawmakers after they refused to cooperate with a House committee hearing.
“And so today, I am joining Ka Eric in a hunger strike to protest yesterday’s travesty that was a direct offshoot of the infiltration of the CPP NPA NDF inside Congress and to also hold those in power accountable to the Filipino people,” Badoy said in a message to Manila Bulletin.
Badoy lamented the treatment of lawmakers against them during the SMNI probe.
“I was deeply saddened — and I remain the same — as I watched the travesty that unfolded before my eyes in yesterday’s congressional hearing of SMNI’s franchise,” Badoy said in her statement.
“Clearly, it wasn’t an honest inquiry into SMNI’s franchise but a set-up where a decision to revoke had seemingly already been reached long before we set foot in Congress and it was by way of silencing us,” she added.
A house lawmaker said that there is a possibility that the franchise of SMNI will be revoked over a number of franchise violations.
In an interview with ABS-CBN News, Surigao Del Sur Representative Johnny Pimentel said that Congress has the authority over media franchises.
“There is a really big possibility revoking,” said Pimentel.
