Senator Panfilo Lacson said he does not believe allegations linking Benedictine nun Mary John Mananzan to the communist underground movement.
Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy of the Presidential Communications Operations Office earlier accused the nun of being a supporter of communist rebels.
“Personally I don’t believe that. I marched with Sister Mananzan in the streets before,” said the senator in an online forum.
Badoy is an outspoken supporter of the anti-terror bill authored by Lacson.
“This measure and myself, we’re not bound by the opinion of [Undersecretary] Badoy. Anyone can express his or her opinion,” said the senator.
“The question, ‘Is it binding on myself as principal sponsor?’ No. I don’t believe Sister Mananzan is a terrorist,” he added.
Badoy’s social media post last week was a reactionto Sister Mananzan’s Facebook post on the guilty verdict handed on Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa over a cyber libel case.
The activist group Movement Against Tyranny has demanded an apology from Badoy for putting the nun’s “life and liberty in peril.”
