The legal camp of community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and church worker Marielle Domequil has asked the Court of Appeals to reconsider the denial of their bid for bail while their appeal is pending.

Their lawyers filed the motion for reconsideration on Friday, 7 August, challenging a Tacloban City Regional Trial Court ruling denying their request for provisional liberty pending appeal.

Cumpio and Domequil’s camp argued that their continued detention raises due process and human rights concerns, citing a joint position issued by United Nations special rapporteurs in March 2026 that described the circumstances surrounding their conviction and detention as “troubling.”

The UN experts also raised concerns over alleged due process violations and the more than six years the two spent in pretrial detention.

Their lawyers also cited findings by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding prolonged deprivation of liberty, arguing that the international findings should be considered in determining whether their continued detention while their appeal is pending remains justified.

Human rights groups have also questioned what they described as inconsistencies in the granting of bail, particularly when compared with cases involving high-profile officials accused of corruption and plunder.

Cumpio and Domequil were arrested in 2020. They were acquitted of charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives but were later convicted in a separate terrorism financing case.

Cumpio became the first journalist in the Philippines convicted under the country’s terrorism financing law.

Their lawyers are asking the CA to revisit the ruling and allow Cumpio and Domequil to post bail while their appeal is being resolved.