Today, November 15, 2024, as PEN commemorates the International Day of Imprisoned Writers, the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) stands in solidarity with all imprisoned and persecuted writers around the world and supports the call from PEN International for their immediate release.
SELDA demands that the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. regime release persecuted and imprisoned writers, including Amanda Echanis, Frenchie Mae Cumpio, Alexandrea Pacalda, Romina Astudillo, and Eduardo Sarmiento, along with all political prisoners.
Amanda Echanis, 36, a writer, peasant advocate, and community organizer, was arrested on December 2, 2020, along with her 22-day-old infant. Firearms and ammunition were planted inside the house where she and her infant were staying, as part of a scheme to justify her arbitrary arrest and the filing of trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Four months prior to her arrest, Amanda’s father, peasant organizer and peace consultant Randall Echanis, was brutally murdered in his rented home in Quezon City on August 10, 2020, at the height of the government’s lockdown to combat COVID-19.
While in prison, Echanis published “Binhi ng Paglaya,” a book which features poetry, essays, and a play that she wrote before and during her incarceration. She previously published a book, “Tatlong Paslit na Alaala,” in 2006, and she wrote the play, “Nanay Mameng: Isang Dula,” in 2014. Echanis is one of the recent fellows of the Palihang Rogelio Sicat (PRS), an annual national workshop on creative writing using Filipino and various languages in the Philippines. It is the first time in the history of the workshop to have a political prisoner as one of its 15 participants.
Frenchie Mae Cumpio, 25, a former campus journalist and alternative news practitioner in Leyte, was arrested on February 7, 2020, along with fellow activists, development workers, and human rights defenders, including Alexander Philip Abinguna, Mira Legion, Marissa Cabaljao, and Mariel Domequil. They were all charged with fabricated cases of illegal possession of firearms and explosives, while Cumpio and Domequil were additionally charged with terrorism financing charges. On November 11, 2024, Frenchie Mae took the witness stand for the first time since her detention.
Alexandrea Pacalda, 28, a former managing editor of The Luzonian, the official publication of the Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation, and secretary general of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) in Quezon province, was abducted by military forces in September 2019. She was forced to sign a false affidavit as a surrenderee, which she later recanted when her lawyer of choice provided legal advise. The military filed trumped-up charges against her for illegal possession of firearms and explosives. In 2023, the Regional Trial Court in Quezon wrongfully convicted her, and she is now imprisoned at the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW).
Romina Astudillo, 35, a former campus journalist and second nominee of the Kabataan Partylist in 2016, was a labor organizer when she was arbitrarily arrested on December 10, 2020, along with six other Metro Manila-based activists on fabricated charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. She remains unjustly detained at Camp Karingal in Quezon City.
Eduardo Sarmiento, 74 years old, is a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, who was wrongfully and unjustly convicted on trumped up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. He is currently detained at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City. While in detention, Sarmiento wrote and illustrated a children’s book, entitled “Susmatanon: Mga Kwentong Pambata,” which was published by the Sentro ng Wikang Filipino in 2017.
Sarmiento continues to write in prison, as he also composes songs on political prisoners, the struggle of peasants and the Filipino people’s aspirations for genuine freedom and democracy.
These writers are among the victims of political persecution during the past regimes, which through their counter-insurgency programs have gone after activists, political dissenters, and freedom of expression advocates. Under the Marcos Jr. administration, there are 755 political prisoners.
As we commemorate this day, SELDA calls on the Marcos administration to drop all trumped-up charges filed against Amanda Echanis, Frenchie Mae Cumpio, Alexander Pacalda, Romina Sham Astudillo, and Eduardo Sarmiento, and to release them from prison immediately.
Free Amanda Echanis, Frenchie Mae Cumpio, Alexander Pacalda, Romina Sham Astudillo and Eduardo Sarmiento!
Free All Political Prisoners!