Photo: PUP Catalyst
KARAPATAN expressed its unflinching support for detained community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, who is scheduled to testify in her defense today, November 11, 2024 at Leyte Regional Trial Court Branch 45, as well as development worker Mariel Domequil and KARAPATAN human rights worker Alexander Philip Abinguna.
Cumpio, a community journalist, was arrested in a pre-dawn raid in Tacloban City on February 7, 2020 along with Domequil and Abinguna. It was the height of a crackdown against activists and rights defenders after former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order (EO) 70, which led to the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
The NTF-ELCAC has been spearheading red-tagging and harassment campaigns against what it claims are communist fronts, including online publication Eastern Vista, of which Cumpio was the executive director, and radio program Lingganay ha Kamatuoran, which she anchored. Cumpio had written hard-hitting pieces against militarization and human rights violations in the region, especially after Duterte signed Memorandum No. 32 that ordered the deployment of more military and police forces to Samar, Bicol and Negros.
Cumpio, Domequil and Abinguna are facing trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives after members of the arresting team planted guns and grenades at their office. In addition, cash amounting to P557,360.00 that was seized from their office has been frozen after the military later presented a “rebel returnee” who gave false testimony that Cumpio and Domequil had provided funds and material support to the New People’s Army in 2019. Thus, on top of the illegal possession charges, they have been slapped with the additional bogus charge of violating the law on terrorist financing.
However, the criminal complaint on terrorist financing filed in July 2021, a year and a half after the arrest, seems to be a retaliatory measure after Cumpio and Domequil demanded the return of the money which was inside a safety deposit box in the raided office. The money, which was intended for distribution to the beneficiaries of “Stand for Samar,” a humanitarian project, was not included in the raiding team’s inventory of items seized, and neither was it specified as among the items to be seized in the search warrant they used to justify ransacking the premises. Neither did Cumpio and Domequil have records of suspicious transactions that would have triggered an investigation under the terrorist financing law.
“We hope that the court will eventually see the charges against Frenchie Mae Cumpio for what they are—as fabricated and malicious attacks not only against her person but against press freedom and freedom of expression, and order her release. We also reiterate our call for the release of our colleague Alexander Philip Abinguna and Mariel Domequil,” concluded KARAPATAN deputy secretary general Maria Sol Taule.