Journalist Cumpio, layworker Domequil appeal conviction, bail denial

MANILA, Philippines — The counsel for community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and layworker Marielle Domequil filed a petition with the Court of Appeals (CA) in Cebu City on Tuesday, May 26, seeking to allow them to post bail after the denial by a Tacloban City court.

Their 25-page petition argued that Presiding Judge Georgina Perez of Tacloban Regional Trial Court Branch 45 “committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction” in denying their motions for bail post-conviction.

They also asked the appellate court to review Cumpio and Domequil’s conviction in a terrorism financing case in January, which sentenced them to 12 years and five months to 18 years and eight months of imprisonment.

“Their conviction is tainted by grave errors in the findings of fact and law, rendering their continued deprivation of liberty violative of their constitutional rights,” the petition read.

Perez denied their joint motion for bail in February and their motion for reconsideration in March, citing their alleged links to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

A 2025 Court of Appeals decision ruled, however, that authorities failed to link both of them to these organizations.

Frenchie Mae Cumpio is a community journalist who served as executive director of the alternative news outlet Eastern Vista, while Marielle Domequil worked with the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines.

They were two of five activists collectively known as the Tacloban 5 who were arrested in February 2021.

Currently, both are detained at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City. Cumpio recently won the 2026 Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation despite her detention.