MANILA — Almost 100 individuals are facing sedition complaints from the Department of Justice (DOJ), including students and mass leaders who participated in the anti-corruption mobilization on September 21, 2025.
For human rights group Karapatan, the sedition and inciting to sedition charges constitute harassment.
Karapatan Secretary-General Cristina Palabay said that using the Cybercrime Prevention Act means that the state elements are persecuting the activists for their social media posts and public statements condemning the massive corruption scandal in the country. “This is obviously meant to send a chilling effect to government critics and suppress their online activities, especially since penalties for cybercrime-related sedition are one degree higher compared to simple sedition, and are further amplified when posts become viral online.”
The first batch of sedition cases involved at least 37 identified individuals; and the second batch, at least 35 individuals. The criminal complaints were referred by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Major Crimes Investigation Unit (CIDG-MCIU) to the DOJ.
Among those who received DOJ subpoenas was Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) president Renato Reyes Jr. At least four student leaders also received summons to appear before the Department of Justice. They were Jacob Baluyot, national chairperson of Alyansa ng Kabataang Mamamahayag and associate editor of The Catalyst; Tiffany Faith Brillante, president of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) Sentral na Konseho ng Mag-aaral; Joaquin Buenaflor, chairperson of the University of the Philippines Diliman University Student Council; and Aldrin Kitsune of Kalayaan Kontra Korapsyon.
In a statement, Reyes said that the Marcos Jr administration is sending a warning to dissenters that they will be prosecuted for their public statements or social media posts.
“The allegations against me are patently false, and the claims of sedition are entirely manufactured,” Reyes said. “These charges rest solely on the fact that I attended the September 21 protest and am a publicly known activist.”
Reyes was injured when violence erupted during the September 21, 2025 protest and was brought to a hospital.
“The underlying message of this trumped-up case is clear—criticism of the regime will be met with legal harassment. This fascist attack seeks to discourage public participation in the movement to hold corrupt officials and a corrupt system accountable,” Reyes said.
PUP students also organized an indignation rally both in their university and in front of the DOJ on January 15 to condemn the sedition complaints against their student leader.
“This is frustrating. Why am I being investigated when I am not the one who stole billions of funds coming from the peoples’ money?” Baluyot said in Filipino during the protest. “I am not the one behind the ghost infrastructure projects.”
He said that instead of addressing the roots of corruption, the response of the government is to go after its critics, especially those who seek justice and accountability for the widespread graft in flood control projects.
Read: 2025 Flood Control Projects Corruption Scandal
ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio, Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Sarah Jane Elago, and Kabataan Rep. Renee Louise Co said that the criminal complaints are baseless and a frontal assault on the constitutional rights to peaceful assembly and free expression.
“It is profoundly troubling that the Marcos administration dedicates more energy to persecuting demonstrators than prosecuting corrupt officials,” they said, stressing that not one principal architect of institutionalized corruption has been held accountable.
Moreover, the deployment of sedition charges is a familiar tactic of the dictatorial governance once sought by the president’s late father Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
“These intimidation tactics will not deter the people’s demand for accountability. State repression only fortifies our determination and validates the necessity of collective action,” they said. (AMU, DAA)
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