DEEP DIVE | Leftsplaining Terror Financing

FIRST OF THREE PARTS

Photo from Altermidya

A young journalist, Gen-Z-ish, with boy-next-door charm, sits in front of a camera and promises to “debunk” a “military’s version” of events.

The hot topic is the conviction of journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and lay worker Marielle Domequil, who were part of the so-called Tacloban 5. Their case was one of the most internationally scrutinized prosecutions related to the Philippine government’s long-running conflict with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). 

In the video, journalist Neil Eco of Altermidya promises to dismantle what he describes as misleading claims in the military’s narrative. The tone is conversational, even humorous at times. At one point, pointing to a poorly stitched footage that juxtaposes protest scenes with armed rebels, he jokes: “Mukha ba akong nasa bundok?” — do I look like a rebel from the mountains?

Indeed any viewer would believe he does not, and for those sympathetic to social causes, the video feels persuasive. In nine or so minutes, it presents Cumpio and Domequil not as participants in an insurgency network, but as a wronged journalist and a church worker, who were criminalized for their work.

But behind Eco’s casual tone (and most other videos and materials of alternative media outfits under Alternidya’s network) is a familiar pattern of arguments that appears repeatedly in public defenses of activists accused of links to the CPP-NPA underground.

Call me “leftsplaining”

Leftsplaining—it's a rhetorical style, perfected over five decades of social practice, that tries to explain away accusations involving communist insurgency networks through narrative reframing rather than direct engagement with the underlying evidence.

Instead of debating the allegations themselves, most national democratic propagandists shift the discussion. Legal decisions automatically become stories about press freedom. Financial transactions become humanitarian fundraising, as witnesses (whistleblowers, really) become suspect. The conversation moves away from the specific acts alleged in court and is pushed to a corner of a political narrative about activism, repression, and social justice.

The Tacloban 5 case, whom Cumpio and Domequil are part of, provides a revealing example of how this narrative shift unfolds. The Tacloban 5 refers to five individuals who were arrested on February 7, 2020 in simultaneous raids conducted by police and military forces in Tacloban City, Leyte. Aside from Cumpio and Domequil, also arrested were Alexander Abinguna, Marissa Cabaljao, and Maria Lourdes Legaspi. Authorities alleged that the group was linked to the urban machinery of the CPP-NPA.

In January 2026, a Tacloban City court finally convicted Cumpio and Domequil of terrorism financing under the Philippines’ anti-terror financing law, which drew intense attention from press freedom groups, foreign embassies, and human rights advocates. Critics argued that the prosecution was part of a broader crackdown on dissent in the country. Sixteen foreign embassies later expressed concern over the conviction, and called it a reminder of the challenges journalists face in conflict-affected regions.

Yet the court’s ruling rested on a very different, very specific narrative.

Former rebels’ testimonies 

According to the decision, the prosecution presented testimonies from several key witnesses: Alma Gabin, Margie Rapisa Dela Cruz, Jason Rafales, Boy Perez, and Jade Cinco. These individuals were identified in the ruling as former members of the CPP and the NPA who had surrendered to the government. Curiously, this detail appears to escape the scrutiny of Altermidya, which otherwise frequently cites the CPP’s Philippine Revolutionary Web Central in its reporting. The same CPP sources have previously acknowledged individuals such as Gabin and others as former members, even labeling them “traitors” after their surrender.

TRAITORS. In several statements and press releases, the CPP's Philippine Revolutionary Web Central has consistently portrayed Alma Gabin and Margie dela Cruz as "former rebels," and therefore, "traitors." Photos from philippinerevolution.nu

Judge Georgina Perez explained why the court considered their testimonies credible.

“When the testimonies of different witnesses independently coincide on the material points of the incident,” she wrote, “such harmony is a strong badge of truth rather than fabrication.”

Prosecutors argued that the accused were not merely activists but finance officers linked to the CPP-NPA’s regional leadership structure, who facilitated the transfer of cash and ammunition to armed rebels in 2019.

Human rights lawyers and activist groups sharply contested Judge Perez’s ruling. They questioned the credibility of the witnesses, described the prosecution’s claims as legally flawed, and pointed to the court’s dismissal of separate firearms charges as evidence that the case was weak.

This clash between two narratives, one grounded in court records while the other in activist advocacy, has become increasingly common in cases—and the ensuing propaganda—involving links between supposedly legal organizations and the CPP-NPA insurgency. And it is precisely in these moments that the dynamics of leftsplaining become visible.

By examining how the Tacloban case is explained in activist commentary—leftsplaining— three recurring narrative techniques emerge: credibility inversion, narrative reframing, identity alignment, and moral displacement.

Understanding these techniques, to be sure, does not settle the debate over the case itself. But it does reveal how political storytelling can transform complex legal accusations into powerful, and sometimes misleading, public narratives.

For close to sixty years, the CPP has mastered leftsplaining in order to shield its cadres and leaders, in this case Cumpio and Domequil, and skirt legal and criminal accountability such as terror financing.

PART TWO will discuss the four narrative techniques employed by propagandists of the national democratic movement. Watch this space.