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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThree 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The press groups lament the delay of the charges, saying that despite a lack of evidence, the cases seemed to be immobile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAlthough 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,\u201d said the College Editors Guild of the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court only held the first hearing of Cumpio\u2019s case on January 23 of this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LOOK: https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/FrenchieFirstHearing<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They said in their resolution that the prolonged detention not only paralyzed the regional media group that Cumpio was running \u2013 thus depriving an entire area of their right to a press free from state attacks \u2013 it had also \u201cdeprived them of their right to liberty\u201d because of its \u201cvexatious, capricious, and oppressive\u201d nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Campus publications echo call to free Cumpio<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cumpio, before becoming a professional journalist, was the Editor-in-Chief of UP Vista, UP Visayas Tacloban\u2019s official student publication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWalang 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,\u201d said UP Solidaridad in a statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The UP system\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They mentioned the attempted surveillance by the Philippine Army\u2019s 5th Infantry Division on UPB Outcrop\u2019s 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 \u2013 Cumpio\u2019s own former publication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHangga\u2019t kaliwa\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This, they said, is the commitment of alternative media and the campus press.<\/p>\n\n\n
Still, they said that these attacks are merely evidence that the state is hiding something, and is afraid of being exposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n