Three years after police officers in Tacloban arrested a journalist and four development workers, detained them for two days without a case, and eventually slapped them with trumped up charges, journalists and other progressive groups continue to demand freedom for Frenchie Mae Cumpio and the rest of the Tacloban 5.Â
Cumpio, then the executive director of the Eastern Vista news website, was arrested alongside the rest of the Tacloban 5 in the early morning of February 7, 2020 in a series of police raids.
In the months leading up to her arrest, Cumpio was already being tailed by suspected state agents and had become victim to several cases of harassment and intimidation.
The press groups lament the delay of the charges, saying that despite a lack of evidence, the cases seemed to be immobile.
“Although not new, how the state delays their hearings and all other processes on their cases show how rotten our justice system is for defenders and how self-serving it is for the ruling classes’ fascist agenda. The state and its cronies instead establish bills that serve their self-interest in terrorist designation among individuals and organizations critical of injustice and threats,” said the College Editors Guild of the Philippines.
The court only held the first hearing of Cumpio’s case on January 23 of this year.Â
LOOK: https://tinyurl.com/FrenchieFirstHearing
Hearing these calls, the Makabayan coalition filed a resolution in the House of Representatives demanding the immediate release of Cumpio and the Tacloban 5, arguing that the delays in their hearings are violations of their constitutional rights.
They said in their resolution that the prolonged detention not only paralyzed the regional media group that Cumpio was running – thus depriving an entire area of their right to a press free from state attacks – it had also “deprived them of their right to liberty” because of its “vexatious, capricious, and oppressive” nature.
Campus publications echo call to free Cumpio
Campus press groups are particularly indignant at the prolonged detention of Cumpio, who was an alumna of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines and UP Solidaridad.
Cumpio, before becoming a professional journalist, was the Editor-in-Chief of UP Vista, UP Visayas Tacloban’s official student publication.
“Walang ibang layunin ang pagkulong kay Cumpio kundi panatilihin ang matagal nang balita ng kabulukan ng estado na pilit isinisiwalat ng mga mamamahayag gaya ni Cumpio,” said UP Solidaridad in a statement.
The UP system’s alliance of publications recounted similar attacks over the past few months, as the state has continuously targeted journalists in general and the campus press in particular.
They mentioned the attempted surveillance by the Philippine Army’s 5th Infantry Division on UPB Outcrop’s multimedia editor Kessha Carreon, the trolling, censorship, and red-tagging of the Manila Collegian and SINAG on Facebook, and the most recent red-tagging incident of UP Vista – Cumpio’s own former publication.
Still, they said that these attacks are merely evidence that the state is hiding something, and is afraid of being exposed.
“Hangga’t kaliwa’t kanan ang balita ng lumalalang krisis, iigiting lamang ang mga balita ng pagbabalikwas. Libo-libong Frenchie Mae Cumpio pa ang iluluwal ng isang lipunang labis na ikinukubli ang totoong kalagayan sapagkat walang kasinungaling hindi naibubunyag,” they said.
This, they said, is the commitment of alternative media and the campus press.
