After being jailed for seven years and six months, the six youth activists known as the Mabinay 6 were acquitted of all criminal charges by a Dumaguete City court on Monday, September 22. The group, arrested on March 3, 2018, in Mabinay town, Negros Oriental, had been accused of engaging in an armed encounter with the military and charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Judge Marie Rose G. Inocando-Paras of Dumaguete City’s Regional Trial Court Branch 42 ruled that the arrest was invalid, citing inconsistencies in the prosecution’s witness testimonies. The activists—Myles Albasin, Randel Hermino, Carlo Ybañes, Joemar Indico, Joey Vailoces, and Bernard Guillen—were on an exposure trip with farmers when they were allegedly arrested following a brief gunfight in Barangay Luyang. The court questioned the lack of witness testimony from barangay residents, the negative gunpowder residue tests for all six, and improper handling of evidence. The court emphasized that the prosecution failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, upholding the constitutional presumption of innocence. Myles Albasin, a community journalist and University of the Philippines-Cebu graduate, had been subjected to anti-communist propaganda by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) during the Duterte administration. Her mother, journalist Grace Albasin, expressed relief over her daughter’s acquittal, ending years of red-tagging and ridicule. Myles was reporting on local farmers’ issues at the time of her arrest.
