SMNI television anchors Lorraine Marie T. Badoy and Jeffrey Celiz asked the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday, Dec. 11, to order their release from the detention center of the House of Representatives in Quezon City.

Last Dec. 5 during a hearing of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises, they were cited in contempt and ordered detained for their alleged refusal to tell the truth and for reportedly hiding information.

Through lawyer Herminio Harry L. Roque Jr., Badoy and Celiz filed a petition for certiorari and habeas corpus and sought their immediate release on or before Dec. 15.

Badoy, former spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), and Celiz are co-anchors of SMNI television program “Laban Kasama Ang Bayan.”

They served as resource persons in a House committee hearing on possible franchise violations of SMNI.

The committee’s probe was triggered by an allegation made during a recent “Laban Kasama Ang Bayan” episode that House Speaker Martin Romualdez spent a whopping P1.8 billion in his travels.

The allegation had been found to be fake news during an earlier hearing of the committee where Celiz even apologized to Romualdez and the rest of the House of Representatives.

Despite the apology, both Badoy and Celiz remained incarcerated.  They were reported to have gone into a hunger strike. They decided to challenge their detention before the SC.

Named respondents in the petition were the members of the House committee led by Rep. Gus S. Tambunting as chairperson and Napoleon C. Taas, sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives.

Badoy and Celiz told the SC there is no basis for their detention because the members of the House committee “committed grave abuse of discretion in exercising their contempt power, and/or such detention constitutes an unlawful punishment for the exercise by the petitioners of their right to freedom of expression and of the press.”

In their petition, they also told the SC:

“The hearing was a congressional inquiry into alleged violations by Swara Sug Media Corporation, doing business as ‘SMNI,’ of its legislative franchise to operate radio and/or television broadcast stations, which was granted under Republic Act No. 11422.

“The alleged violations, for which the Petitioners (Badoy and Celiz) were summoned to the congressional hearing, consist of comments made by them during an episode of ‘Laban Kasama Ang Bayan’ that aired on Nov. 27, 2023

“’Laban Kasama Ang Bayan’ is a TV show hosted by the Petitioners, which airs over SMNI’s network. In the show, the hosts regularly discuss the social and political issues of the day.

“In the November 27 episode, the Petitioners made comments and poised questions about information that they received regarding the allegedly excessive expenses that were/are being incurred by House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez during his official travel to foreign countries.

“During the December 5 congressional inquiry, the Petitioners, in particular Petitioner Jeffrey Celiz, were being forced to reveal the identity of their source who told them about the House Speaker’s allegedly excessive expenses during his foreign trips.

“Petitioner Celiz politely refused, invoking the Shield Law (Republic Act No. 53 as amended).

“Petitioner Lorraine Marie Badoy was also being quizzed about her share of ownership of ‘Laban Kasama Ang Bayan.’ She allegedly gave ‘confusing’ and inconsistent answers to the questions of the Respondent Committee.

“Even while Petitioner Celiz profusely apologized that he cannot disclose the source of his information because of the Shield Law (Republic Act No. 53 amended), and even while Petitioner Badoy tried to answer the Committee’s questions to the best of her knowledge, the Committee still cited both of them in contempt and ordered their detention within the premises of the Batasan Complex

“The Petitioners were deprived of their right to due process of law. The detention of the Petitioners is an unlawful punishment for the comments that they made in their TV program.

“The comments made by the Petitioners in their TV program are privileged.     The detention of the Petitioners is a violation of their right to freedom of expression and of the press. The Petitioners cannot be compelled to reveal their source, in accordance with the Shield Law.

“The Respondent Committee violated the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives.”

They asked the SC “to issue a writ of habeas corpus declaring that there is no legal basis for the detention of the Petitioners, and ordering their immediate release.”