The guilty sentence pronounced by the Tacloban City Regional Trial Court (RTC) against community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and layworker Marielle Domequil, based on trumped-up “terrorism financing” charges, has exposed to the entire country and the international community that there is no true freedom or democracy under the Marcos regime.

For almost six years, Cumpio and Domequil have been unjustly detained because of an illegal raid and planted evidence. These have already been dismissed by the courts by their sheer ridiculousness. But they will remain behind bars due to “terrorist financing” charges filed as an afterthought in 2021, already a year into their detention, as a way by the fascist state to prolong the undue sufferring of the young human rights defenders.

The RTC decision shows the hypocrisy of the reactionary legal system. In November 2025 the Court of Appeals had already ruled that there was no evidence linking Cumpio and Domequil to so-called “terrorist groups.” Now the RTC convicts them on the basis of poor, far-fetched testimonies by some “rebel returnees” who are in fact self-serving military agents. In fact, these arbitrary designations of “terrorists” have been considered unconstitutional by legal luminaries. For ordinary citizens, there is no reprieve from the reactionary judicial system.

The sentencing only reaffirms the Marcos regime policy of weaponizing laws to suppress critical dissent. Cumpio and Domequil’s “terrorist financing” conviction comes as the Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Task Force-Elcac and their paid trolls put their counter-insurgency media campaign into overdrive. State forces have unleashed a delgue of sedition cases against individuals who participated in the September 21 protests. Youth activists in Eastern Visayas reported increased surveillance, profiling and harassment since last year. In the midst of Cumpio and Domequil’s promulgation, friends and relatives who were outside the Tacloban court to show their support and exercise their right to assembly were driven away by a hundred police personnel in anti-riot gear who are apparently deathly scared of civilians wearing white shirts. Cumpio, Domequil, Alexander Abinguna and their fellow political prisoners continue to languish throught the country because of bogus cases.

Meanwhile, corrupt, criminal government officials remain scott-free, and the very few made to face punishment are held by the hand by police generals towards their well-furnished “prison cells,” convicted for a time but eventually pardoned, run for election and then return to office. “Due process” is guaranteed only for the rich and powerful.

Under the Marcos fascist regime, true freedom and democracy for the Filipino people face bleaker prospects. All the more that they are pushed to radical means to attain their freedom and rights. The Marcos regime only has itself to blame when the revolutionary movement gains broader and stronger support from the people who have become disillusioned by the unjustness of the ruling system and seek genuine social change.