Frenchie Mae Cumpio, Marielle Domequil, and Alexander Abinguna

Frenchie Mae Cumpio, Marielle Domequil, and Alexander Abinguna are human rights activists from the Philippines who have been held in pre-trial detention since February 2020 on charges related to their work.

Cumpio is the executive director of the Eastern Vista news website and a radio news anchor at Aksyon Radyo Tacloban DYVL 819. Her reporting focused on alleged human rights abuses perpetrated by the police and military.

Domequil is a community organizer with the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and a women’s rights activist.

Abinguna is a member of the Karapatan Council, which conducts research and documents human rights abuses in the Philippines.

The three activists were arrested in February 2020 during a series of pre-dawn police raids in Tacloban City, a coastal city located approximately 360 miles southeast of Manila. The arrest occurred days after Cumpio reported to the nonprofit foundation Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility that masked men had been tailing the staff of Eastern Vista. In one instance, a man came to the Eastern Vista office with a picture of Cumpio asking if staff knew her whereabouts. Two other human rights activists were also arrested in the raid: Marissa Cabaljao and Mira Legion. The group is collectively referred to as the “Tacloban 5.”

Cumpio, Domequil, and Abinguna were charged with illegal possession of firearms after authorities alleged to have found a weapon during their raid. Authorities claim that Eastern Vista operated as a front for the Communist Party and its armed wing, the New People’s Army. The activists have denied these accusations. The Filipino government has often used the tactic of “red-tagging,” or labeling individuals as communists, to bring spurious criminal charges against journalists and human rights advocates. The arrest of the Tacloban 5 occurred amid the government’s broader campaign to shut down several independent news outlets, including Rappler and ABS-CBN, a television network.

In July 2021, new charges were filed against Cumpio alleging that she was financing terrorist activities based upon money was found during the raid on her home and office. A civil forfeiture case was subsequently initiated against her as a result of these charges.

In September 2025, Freedom Now and the international law firm Dechert LLP filed a petition with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of the three activists.

After nearly six years in jail, in January 2026 Cumpio and Domequil were sentenced to 12-18 years in prison. Cumpio’s legal team plans to file an appeal. Abiguna, who is being tried in a separate case, remains in pre-trial detention.