Jeffrey "Ka Eric" Celiz (left) and Lorraine Badoy (PPAB)

SMNI program anchors Lorraine Badoy and Jeffrey "Ka Eric" Celiz have decided to go on a  hunger strike amid their detention at the House of Representatives in Quezon City. 

This was confirmed in a statement sent by Badoy to the Manila Bulletin on Wednesday morning, Dec. 6. 

"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. 

Badoy is a former spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), the sworn enemy of the Reds or the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF). 

On Tuesday, Dec. 5, the Parañaque City 2nd district Rep. Gus Tambunting-chaired Committee on Legislative Franchises cited Badoy and Celiz--who are co-anchors of the program "Laban Kasama Ang Bayan"--in contempt. As such, they were ordered detained in the House. 

The two served as resource persons in a hearing of the commtitee on possible franchise violations of SMNI. 

"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 claimed. 

Solons had the two cited in contempt as they were convinced that they either refused to tell the truth or were hiding information from the House panel. 

The Tambunting panel's probe on SMNI 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. 

This has since been proven 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. 

"We must fight for our democratic right to freely express ourselves. We must also staunchly fight for our right to press freedom," Badoy said. 

"The right of media practitioners to freely inform the public about burning issues of the day and the right of our people to be informed are bedrocks of a vibrant democracy because we are able to hold the powerful accountable to us, the people they are supposed to serve," she added. 

Badoy and Celiz will be under House custody until the committee report on the panel probe is approved in plenary. Since the chamber will go on a holiday break soon, this could mean that the anchors will spend both Christmas and new year in detention.