ILOILO CITY — More than 200 church leaders of Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) demand the freedom of their colleague, Aldeem Yañez, in the conclusion of their General Assembly last May 9.
Yañez has been in detention for more than four years without conviction. He is a 51-year-old church worker, serving the IFI for more than three decades. He was ordained in April 2025 while he was in detention– the first political prisoner to be ordained a deacon of the IFI.
“Deacon Aldeem Yañez has served this Church for three decades — in peacebuilding, human rights work, and community ministry in Visayas and Mindanao. He is one of us,” the IFI leaders said in a statement.
State security forces arrested Yañez in his residence in Barangay Iponan, Cagayan de Oro on April 10, 2022 – ironically on a Palm Sunday – after the alleged recovery of a cal. 45 pistol and explosives during a search, which was denied by his family.
The Philippine Army’s 4th Infantry Division claimed that the church worker was a member of the New People’s Army (NPA), allegedly doing underground work in Bukidnon province.
His family belied the accusations, saying that Yañez, aside from being a church and development worker for the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), had been taking care of their sick father for months before the arrest.
Aside from charges related to illegal possession of firearms and explosives, Yañez, who is currently detained at Lumbia City Jail in Cagayan de Oro, is also facing a terrorism financing case—the same law used against activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and church workers—reportedly filed on August 15, 2022, four months after his arrest.
Read: Aldeem Yañez: Church worker ‘armed with guitar, not pistol’
IFI church leaders calling for the immediate and unconditional release of their colleague, Aldeem Yañez, during their General Assembly in Iloilo City. Photo by Dominic Gutoman/Bulatlat.
The Regional Trial Court Branch 266 of Taguig issued an order to transfer his detention from Cagayan de Oro City Jail to a facility in Taguig. But the church leaders and the legal counsel opposed this move, noting that the transfer could affect his access to counsel, immediate family, and community.
The legal counsel of Yañez filed a motion for reconsideration (MR) on February 26, 2026, but was denied on April 28, 2026. As of this writing, the physical transfer has not yet taken place.
“His transfer to Taguig directly threatens his participation in those proceedings. His bail application before the Taguig court remains unresolved,” the IFI added. “Taken together, these developments point to an accused person being progressively disabled from defending himself.”
Furthermore, IFI believes that the case does not exist in a vacuum but form part of a broader pattern of repression, citing the role of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in red-tagging, charging, and imprisoning citizens, marginalized sectors, and human rights defenders who work with the poor.
“The IFI has lost its own to this machinery. We recognize it and we name it,” the statement read. “Red-tagging is a state oppression. Genuine peace comes through justice, accountability, and honest reckoning with poverty and inequality.”
The Commission on Human Rights has been called to conduct an inquiry on the case of Yañez. The courts are also called to resolve the bail application without further delay and heed their call to stop the transfer of his detention.
IFI also calls on the Office of the President to end the practice of red-tagging and for Congress to examine the terrorism financing law and the NTF-ELCAC.
“We pray for Deacon Aldeem, for his family, and for this nation, that dignity may be the birthright of every Filipino, and that peace may be built on justice. We will keep watch. We will keep praying. We will keep standing,” the statement ended. (AMU, RTS)
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