Detainees after 2020 raid files MR with CA

Counsel of community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and church worker Marielle Domequil petitioned the Court of Appeals (CA) yesterday to reconsider the denial of their bid to post bail.

The lawyers filed the motion for reconsideration on Friday, 7 August, challenging the decision of the Tacloban City Regional Trial Court that denied their request for provisional liberty pending appeal.

Crumpio and Domequil were arrested on 7 February 2020, in Tacloban City, during a series of pre-dawn police and military raids.

The duo should be allowed to post bail, saying that their continued detention raises serious due process and human rights concerns.

They cited a joint position issued by United Nations Special Rapporteurs in March 2026, which described the circumstances surrounding the two women’s conviction and detention as “troubling.”

United Nations rights experts raised concerns over alleged violations of due process and cited the more than six years Cumpio and Domequil spent in pretrial detention.

Arbitrary detention

They also invoked findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which characterized prolonged deprivation of liberty under certain circumstances as “arbitrary.”

These international findings should be considered in determining whether continued detention while the appeal is pending remains justified, the lawyers argued.

Likewise, human rights groups have questioned inconsistencies in the granting of bail, particularly in cases involving high-profile officials facing allegations of corruption and plunder, while Cumpio and Domequil remain detained.