CIVICUS discusses the criminalisation of dissent within the Philippines with Kyle A Domequil, spokesperson of the Free Tacloban 5 Community, a marketing campaign supporting journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, human rights defender Marielle Domequil and their co-accused and advocating for his or her launch.
On 22 January, a Philippines courtroom convicted Cumpio and Domequil of terrorism financing, sentencing them to between 12 and 18 years in jail. The 2 have been amongst 5 folks arrested in February 2020 following illegal police and navy raids. Rights teams condemned the decision as a miscarriage of justice, arguing it exemplifies how anti-terror legal guidelines silence critics by ‘red-tagging’, a observe of publicly accusing folks of communist or terrorist hyperlinks with out proof, subjecting them to surveillance and exposing them to arrest and violence.
What have been the circumstances of the arrests?
Within the early hours of seven February 2020, police and navy forces raided the workplaces of a number of organisations in Tacloban Metropolis. 5 folks have been arrested: Cumpio, a neighborhood journalist and Domequil, a Rural Missionaries of the Philippines lay employee, together with Alexander Philip Abinguna, a member of Karapatan’s Nationwide Council, Individuals Surge Community spokesperson Marissa Cabaljao and Mira Legion of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Jap Visayas. They’re collectively often known as the Tacloban 5.
The raids adopted Karapatan publicly elevating considerations about intensive surveillance of its workplace and different organisations within the metropolis. Days earlier than her arrest, Cumpio reported to the Centre for Media Freedom and Accountability that masked males had been tailing the workers of Jap Vista, the native information web site the place she served as govt director. Cumpio was already being adopted and Legion acquired a really suspicious name from a person saying who simply stored saying ‘cease it’. Cumpio was capable of publish on Jap Vista about what was taking place to them only a few days earlier than the arrest.
The Tacloban 5 have denounced that proof was planted through the raid. Ammunition, explosives, firearms and a Communist Social gathering flag have been allegedly discovered the place they slept, beneath pillows and mattresses and even close to Cabaljao’s one-year-old baby’s crib. They have been unable to witness the seizure as a result of they have been turned away through the search. Authorities additionally seized ₱557,360 (approx. US$9,600) in money.
Cabaljao and Legion confronted bailable costs of unlawful possession of firearms and have been ultimately granted bail. On prime of that, Abinguna, Cumpio and Domequil confronted non-bailable costs of unlawful possession of explosives. Since their arrest, they remained detained whereas dealing with successive costs extensively seen as politically motivated. Now Cumpio and Domequil have been convicted, whereas Abinguna stays in pretrial detention six years after being detained.
What proof did the courtroom depend on to convict Cumpio and Domequil?
The conviction rested virtually solely on testimonies from 4 ‘insurgent returnees’, individuals who declare to have left armed teams and who obtain monetary help from the navy. They testified that on 29 March 2019, they noticed Cumpio and Domequil at a camp of the New Individuals’s Military (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Social gathering, handing money, ammunition and clothes to an NPA commander.
There was no corroborating proof or documentary or photographic proof, simply these testimonies from navy property whose credibility ought to have been questioned. The defence offered proof that Cumpio and Domequil have been elsewhere that day and so they additionally offered paperwork of their actions, however the courtroom dismissed this.
The courtroom acquitted Cumpio and Domequil of the unlawful possession of explosives and firearms costs, ruling the proof was based mostly on unreliable witnesses and inconsistent narratives and there was certainly a possibility for planting proof. But on the identical lies and perjured testimonies, the identical courtroom discovered them responsible of terrorism financing and sentenced them to 12 to 18 years in jail.
This verdict is especially troubling on condition that in October 2025 the Courtroom of Appeals had overturned a civil forfeiture case towards them, discovering there was little cause to imagine they have been related to the NPA. The Courtroom of Appeals even warned towards the hasty labelling of human rights employees as terrorists.
How do anti-terror legal guidelines and red-tagging allow instances reminiscent of this?
They operate as instruments of political persecution. Purple-tagging labels folks as linked to rebel or terrorist teams with out credible proof. As soon as red-tagged, they face arrest, harassment, surveillance and threats. It creates a local weather the place suspicion replaces due course of.
The anti-terrorism legislation incorporates imprecise, overly broad provisions. Authorities can affiliate neighborhood organising humanitarian work and journalism with armed teams, even with out intent to commit violence. Cumpio was reporting on red-tagging and unlawful searches earlier than her arrest. Her radio programme was additionally red-tagged.
Public vilification mixed with expansive safety laws produces a repeatable sample: stigmatise, raid, cost and detain for years. Cumpio and Domequil’s case displays this structure of repression.
Who celebrated their conviction, and what does that reveal?
The Nationwide Process Drive to Finish Native Communist Armed Battle (NTF-ELCAC) celebrated the decision as a ‘decisive authorized victory towards terrorism’. NTF-ELCAC is a authorities physique that systematically targets activists, human rights defenders and journalists by red-tagging. It has repeatedly accused Karapatan of being a communist entrance. It labels official civil society organisations as terrorist supporters, creating the pretext for raids, arrests and prosecutions.
When a courtroom convicts a neighborhood journalist based mostly on compromised testimony and the federal government’s counter-insurgency equipment celebrates, it reveals the conviction’s true function: silencing dissent and punishing those that doc abuses.
What’s occurred to the opposite members of the Tacloban 5?
Cabaljao and Legion have been launched on bail, however not with out struggling frozen property, a number of instances, prolonged detention and relentless red-tagging. Abinguna stays in pretrial detention and his trial continues at Tacloban Metropolis Regional Trial Courtroom, the place the prosecution has thus far offered fewer than half its listed witnesses, successfully delaying proceedings and prolonging his detention.
Whereas detained, Abinguna was hit with further trumped-up costs: double homicide and tried homicide, based mostly solely on testimony from a ‘insurgent returnee’ who tried to hyperlink him to an alleged NPA ambush in October 2019. Cumpio confronted the identical costs till a courtroom granted her movement to quash them in November 2025. Abinguna’s movement was denied.
Past this case, what does Karapatan’s documentation reveal in regards to the broader sample?
Karapatan paperwork arbitrary imprisonment, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and militarisation throughout the Philippines. We conduct fact-finding missions, file instances by courts and worldwide human rights our bodies, present psychosocial help to victims and assist organise victims’ households.
Beneath the present authorities, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 have been aggressively enforced to not shield the general public, however to persecute critics and suppress dissent.
The Tacloban 5 case exposes how counter-terrorism legal guidelines, fabricated costs, judicial harassment and years of unjust detention silence activists, humanitarian employees, human rights defenders and journalists. It’s not an remoted incident; it’s a deliberate technique.
Based on our newest knowledge, there are round 700 political prisoners within the Philippines. Many face the identical sample: red-tagging, questionable raids, planted proof, reliance on testimony from navy property and extended detention.
What occurs subsequent?
The case is beneath attraction. All obtainable authorized treatments are being pursued. The conviction wants rigorous evaluation, significantly of due course of violations and evidentiary requirements in terrorism-related instances. Courts should guarantee nationwide safety claims don’t override elementary rights.
However we want greater than case-by-case appeals. Structural reforms are important. Purple-tagging should be explicitly prohibited with these accountable held accountable. The anti-terrorism legislation should be repealed or basically amended to stop misuse towards human rights defenders and journalists. Safeguards should be strengthened to stop illegal raids, evidence-planting and safety power abuses. NTF-ELCAC should be held accountable for its function in criminalising dissent.
In the end, prevention of comparable instances requires the dismantling of mechanisms that deal with dissent as crime. With out accountability and structural reform, the criminalisation of activism will proceed.
CIVICUS interviews a variety of civil society activists, specialists and leaders to assemble various views on civil society motion and present points for publication on its CIVICUS Lens platform. The views expressed in interviews are the interviewees’ and don’t essentially mirror these of CIVICUS. Publication doesn’t suggest endorsement of interviewees or the organisations they signify.
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