Journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and church worker Marielle Domequil continue to contest their imprisonment and convictions for terrorism financing, while Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), deacon Aldeem Yañez is fighting his unlawful detention and the fabricated charges.
On May 26, 2026, the lawyers of Cumpio and Domequil asked the Court of Appeals in Cebu City to reverse the court’s decision to deny them bail following their convictions.
In their petition, the lawyers for both defendants argued that Tacloban City Regional Trial Court Judge Georgina Uy-Perez allegedly committed grave abuse of discretion when she denied their motions for bail despite the reasons they presented.
Judge Perez previously denied bail, citing concerns that the defendants could remain linked to terrorism, threaten national security, or attempt to flee.
Ephraim Cortez, president of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), called on the Office of the Solicitor General to serve the public interest by dropping the case.
Meanwhile, over 200 church leaders renewed their call for Aldeem Yañez’s immediate release at the IFI General Assembly in Iloilo City on May 9, 2026.
The Philippine Army accused Yañez of being a member of the rebel group New People’s Army, a claim strongly denied by his relatives and supporters. He has spent more than four years in jail without a conviction and is the first political detainee to become an IFI deacon while behind bars.
Yañez was arrested in Cagayan de Oro in April 2022, accused of keeping firearms and explosives – allegations his family says are unfounded. Over 50 counts of alleged terrorism financing were filed against Yañez in August 2022.
Court decisions to transfer him to a Taguig facility for his trial on charges of terrorism financing have sparked worries that he might lose regular contact with his lawyers and family, particularly after a late April request to stop the transfer was denied.
IFI argues that the case is part of a larger pattern of state repression, highlighting the involvement of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in targeting and persecuting activists and marginalized groups.
IFI leaders asked the Philippine Commission on Human Rights and the courts to quickly address Yañez’s bail request, stop his transfer, and push the Congress to reexamine both the terrorism financing law and the NTF-ELCAC.
Photo © Karapatan