It was a kind of spur of the moment decision. Frankly, I had ideated the many ways I would berate her if we ever came face-to-face. But I stretched out my hand, looked her in the eye, and introduced myself.

Neil, journalist, from Altermidya.

Her name is Alma Gabin. On October 13, 2025 in Tacloban City, she testified against Jasmin Jerusalem, executive director of community development group Leyte Center for Development Inc. (LCDe). Jerusalem faced a terrorism financing charge for supposedly funding red rebels in Eastern Visayas and Gabin was presented by the prosecution to supposedly illustrate how LCDe operated. She alleges she was a former staff of the organization.

After the hearing, Gabin sat on the blue, bus terminal-style benches right outside the Branch 45 courtroom of the Tacloban City Regional Trial Court. The same court handles Frenchie Mae Cumpio and Marielle Domequil’s cases, which include terrorism financing. Gabin also testified against them. Why I had imaginings about cussing out Gabin is because Frenchie and Marielle are my friends.

Jazmin Bonifacio, a journalist and a colleague, also observed the hearing. She had already interviewed Gabin for a report for Mindanews, on the state of so-called rebel surrenderees—people who were alleged members of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army, made to surrender by the state’s leading anti-communist agency, the NTF-ELCAC. The government promises rewards of livelihood and housing for those willing to lay down their arms and leave behind the rebel life. Gabin admitted in the report that the promises still hadn’t come to fruition despite her ‘surrender’ a couple years back. The CPP, for its part, reported that Gabin and her husband were abducted by state forces on June 11, 2020.

Ate Jaz thought to interview Gabin on video after the hearing. It was a sort of grilling session, her testifying. Atty. Hidalgo, Jerusalem’s counsel, was relentless in his questioning. The veteran lawyer zeroed in on loopholes in Gabin’s narrative, pointing out inconsistencies in terminologies and timeline of events. Gabin is being portrayed as a ‘high-ranking’ CPP-NPA officer in her testimonies against NTF-ELCAC’s targets.

I didn’t think Ate Jaz was serious about the interview, not until she walked over to Gabin. I froze for a second, thinking what my move would be. The main consideration for me, if I also interviewed her, was: Would I compromise my security by revealing myself to a person with ties to an agency bent on cracking down on progressives and critical media? I couldn’t even go visit my hometown in Northern Samar for long stretches of time because the regional ELCAC there is painting me as some clandestine ‘terrorist’ propagandist.

Perhaps it was curiosity or perhaps it was recklessness masking as courage, but I walked over to where Gabin was. She had declined the interview so Ate Jaz chatted with her instead, checking up on her former interview subject. They were mid-conversation when I approached. I immediately noticed how relaxed Gabin appeared, relative to when she was on the witness stand. Until now, I can still recall the shakiness in her voice as she spoke words that sounded awfully a lot like something memorized from a script. Though, to be fair, witnesses do come prepared with official affidavits. But her eyes, for most of her time on the witness stand, were wide open, anxious, alert. To me, she looked scared. I’m not sure if it was because of the journalists and international delegates supporting LCDe observing the hearing or what.

A pause in their conversation allowed me the moment to introduce myself. I tried for a disdainful look and an aloof tone as I spoke to her but my face went for a smile. Muscle memory, maybe, from years of approaching strangers hoping to get an interview. I tried asking ‘how are you?’ but the words couldn’t come out of my mouth. I think I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to control myself and shift to a much less friendly tone, and questioning. Time and place, I thought.

Oddly, Gabin was alone. Ate Jaz was the one who made that observation. It was a stark difference from when she testified against Frenchie and Marielle since she had these bodyguards with her. I’ve also heard talk that, to put it bluntly, she isn’t of much use to the NTF-ELCAC anymore. It’s like storylines from spy movies where the double agent gets discarded by both sides they work for.

I hitched a ride with Ate Jaz when we left the court. In the car ride, my mind went to Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano, activists who were abducted, and later exposed their abduction when presented in a press conference with military and ELCAC officials. I wondered what must have been done to Gabin for her to turn out like that.

I’ve come to know from literature, stories, and documentaries that people who decide to take up arms and join the NPA are driven by a deep sense of purpose. To change society and push for a socialist revolution, they arm themselves not only with guns but with revolutionary theory. And the decision to join the armed struggle in the Philippine countryside and make the ultimate sacrifice, they come from realizing that all suffering and oppression could be ended through revolution.

I wonder then what sort of torture and threats Gabin faced if she had once believed that a better, fairer world was possible through participating in the revolutionary movement.

Journalism is work that could never be taken over by machines because core to the job of a journalist is humanity and empathy. I must be honest and say I felt sorry for Gabin when I saw her in person. I don’t mean that condescendingly. Being abducted, used as a tool to attack people and organizations seeking social justice and systemic change, made to name names of her former colleagues and comrades knowing they’d be put in peril… I couldn’t even imagine how she makes sense of her reality.

Objectively, however, so much damage has been done. Frenchie and Marielle have now spent most of their twenties in jail under fabricated charges. LCDe, an organization devoted to providing relief and development to farming and fishing communities, has been crippled in their operations. And Gabin is just one of many ‘rebel surrenderees’ pointing fingers and justifying the persecution of innocents. How many more cases like Frenchie and Marielle’s and LCDe’s are out there?

The NTF-ELCAC has been operating in such a way that destabilizes peace in our country, especially in the countryside. It channels public funds into spreading its message of a ‘communist terror’ that is out to get everyone and fool them into taking up arms while glossing over the reasons of why there is armed struggle in the first place: Landlessness, hunger, wealth inequality, exploitation—such long-standing problems that have plagued our country for centuries. It targets people like Gabin, who once may have embodied revolutionary ideals, and turn them into agents of terror, spreading fear and lies to silence dissent; whether that be from activists, development groups, or journalists.

Such sad state of affairs, thankfully, drives movements, in many forms, toward a lasting peace anchored on justice.