ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider House sets Celiz, Badoy free due to humanitarian reasons 

House sets Celiz, Badoy free due to humanitarian reasons 

Published Dec 12, 2023 10:27 am

At A Glance

  • SMNI program anchors Jeffrey "Ka Eric" Celiz and Lorraine Badoy were allowed to walk free from detention in the House of Representatives on late Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 12 due to humanitarian reasons. 

FB_IMG_1701397033064.jpgJeffrey "Ka Eric" Celiz (left) and Lorraine Badoy (Facebook)

 

 

 

 

 

 

SMNI program anchors Jeffrey "Ka Eric" Celiz and Lorraine Badoy were allowed to walk free from detention in the House of Representatives on late Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 12 due to humanitarian reasons. 

The decision to release the two resulted from a closed-door hearing of the Committee on Legislative Franchises, chaired by Parañaque City 2nd district Rep. Gus Tambunting. 

The Tambunting panel was the one that cited Celz and Badoy for contempt in a hearing last Dec. 5. This came with a punishment of detention within House grounds. 

"Ang desisyon po ay papalayin at a [for] humanitarian reasons (The decision is to let them go for humanitarian reasons)," Tambunting told House reporters. 

"This is a, they are free to go, this is not a furlough. We’ve asked them already to, we lifted their detention. And if they are needed in the future, we will just call them back," he said.

In all, Celiz and Badoy were held in House custody for eight days; in seven of those days, the two held a hunger strike in protest of their "illegal detention". 

As of this posting, the two anchors of the program "Laban Kasama Ang Bayan" were awaiting clearance by medical staff. After that, they are free to leave the House.

The two served as resource persons in the legislative franchises panel's ongoing inquiry on the alleged franchise violations of SMNI. The probe was triggered after they brought up during a Nov. 27 episode of their program the allegation that House Speaker Martin Romualdez had spent a whopping P1.8 billion on his travels. 

The allegation was proven false in a Nov. 30 hearing, where the House's financial department said that the Office of the Speaker's travel expenses from January to October 2023 only amounted to P4.3 million.  

In a Dec. 5 hearing of the panel, a defiant Celiz refused to name his source for the fake news. This led to his being cited for contempt. 

 

ALSO READ:

https://mb.com.ph/2023/12/10/lumiit-ang-tiyan-smni-lawyer-says-celiz-badoy-holding-real-hunger-strike

 

The committee handed down a similar citation against Badoy when she was suspected of withholding information in the probe.

As per Tambunting, the discussion on whether or not to release the anchors was a contentious one. 

"Medyo mahaba po yung diskusyon. Syempre mayroong hindi sumasang-ayon, mayroong sumasang-ayon, merong naga-abstain sa discussion (The discussion was long. Of course there were those against it, those for it, and those who abstained). 

"I had to call the vote as to what is the decision of the committee," noted the Parañaque solon. 

"So alam po niyo, Pasko po ngayon at alam po niyo for humanitarian reasons, hindi naman kailangan na yan ay magkaroon pa ng humingi pa ng sorry o anoman. E kami na ho mismo ang nag-decide na sila ay pakawalan pareho," he added. 

(So you know, it's Christmas season, and for humanitarian reasons, they don't need to make an apology or anything. That's why we decided ourselves to release them.)

 

Related Tags

contempt lorraine badoy House of Representative Jeffrey "Ka Eric" Celiz
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.