We welcomed the Court of Appeals (CA) decision overturning the Anti-Money Laundering Council’s (AMLC) attempt to forfeit funds belonging to journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and church lay worker Mariel Domequil. It is a long-overdue vindication after years of red-tagging and fabricated charges.
This decision is an affirmation of truth in a landscape where impunity often wins. Frenchie Mae and Mariel were tagged as terrorists, funds which they were safekeeping for typhoon victims and a local radio program seized, and their rights trampled, all without proof. The Court has now affirmed what we’ve said all along: the trumped-up charges against these young activists were built on lies.
In its Oct. 29, 2025 decision, the CA reversed the Manila Regional Trial Court’s forfeiture order, ruling that the AMLC acted without legal basis when it seized P557,360 from the two in 2020. The Court found “a dearth of reason to believe” they were involved in any unlawful activity and noted that neither had been designated nor proscribed as a terrorist.
Significantly, the Court underscored the danger of using “national security” rhetoric to justify rights violations, stating that “(T)he Court cannot countenance the hasty labelling of human rights advocates as terrorists and the speedy confiscation of their funds and property in the name of national security. Measures to counter terrorism must not be done without due process, and at the expense of individuals, groups, and civil society organizations that are engaged in the promotion and defense of human rights...”
The ruling reveals how the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and terrorism financing laws have become instruments of the state’s broader crackdown on journalists and activists.
This is what happens when propaganda and terror-tagging become the state’s business. The AMLC, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict and law enforcement have weaponized the law to silence truth-tellers and humanitarian workers. The ruling exposes how baseless their accusations have always been.
The decision should pave the way for the dismissal of all trumped-up criminal cases against Cumpio and Domequil, who remain detained on charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives, along with Karapatan National Council member Alexander Philip Abinguna, who are part of the Tacloban 5, a group of five activists arbitrarily arrested and detained in Tacloban City since February 2020.
We urge the courts to take the next step: dismiss the fabricated charges and set them free. Frenchie Mae should be in the newsroom, not in jail. Mariel should be back serving communities, not facing invented cases. Alexander Philip should be in communities conducting fact-finding missions, not in jail. Keeping them detained only extends the injustice they’ve already suffered.