1 week Ago By Jazmin Bonifacio, John Sitchon
LEYTE, Philippines – Frenchie Mae Cumpio has now spent five years inside jail, and at 25 years old, she finally took the witness stand to tell her side of the story, and only because her team of lawyers put her there. Cumpio, arrested in 2020 for charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives, told a Tacloban court on Monday, November 11, a tale as old as time for the human rights community — that authorities barged into their homes and arrested them irregularly. “We could have let them in, because we were not hiding anything,” Cumpio said during the hearing on Monday after her lawyers put her on the stand.
The prosecution did not call her as a witness in the first part of the trial, which is why this was her first time to speak in court. “It has taken the government nearly half a decade to prepare a case against Frenchie and during this long period, this young woman has been left to languish in detention. That itself raises serious questions about the fairness of the process,” said Irene Khan, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, on X (formerly Twitter).
Cumpio attempted to file a demurrer to evidence right after the prosecution presented their side, which is a pleading to seek an outright dismissal and cut the trial short, but her motion to leave to file a demurrer was denied, according to her lawyer Julianne Agpalo of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL). During the prosecution’s presentation, state agents insisted they validly implemented a search warrant at the staff house of Eastern Visa, Cumpio’s news organization, where she reported on human rights abuses committed by the military. When it was her turn to speak, finally, Cumpio said authorities did not inform them why they were there at the staff house despite repeated queries.
Cumpio recalled to the court how police broke down their door, barged into their room, and forced them to lie on the floor and made them stay outside. “Hindi na nila alam kung anong nangyari sa kwarto nila (They had no idea what was happening inside their room),” Agpalo told Rappler in a phone interview on Tuesday, November 12, recalling her client’s testimony. Cumpio also showed the court the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registration of Eastern Vista, to dispute the allegation that the staff house was being used as a safehouse of communist rebels, the basis for separate charges of terror financing against her.
“[She showed it] to dispute the claim that she was providing a ‘safe house’ for armed groups. It’s absurd to think that it would be a safe house, it is a boarding house..
.renters move freely there, there are shared bathrooms, it is illogical to consider it a safe house,” Agpalo told Rappler. Cumpio is still on trial for terror financing, but Agpalo said both cases are about to wrap up.
“We are reaching the end for both cases. It will be Frenchie and Marielle, the last witnesses for the defense, the last to be presented and from there, it will be up to the judge,” the lawyer added. Agpalo said they would consider pressing charges against those who she said lied about Cumpio, and Cumpio’s co-respondent Marielle Domequil who is a member of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP).
RMP has also been accused by the State of terror financing over their work of assisting grassroots communities. On trial for too long Wearing face masks, Cumpio and Domequil’s eyes lit up when they saw their friends waiting for them at the gate of the courthouse. Although she’s been detained for five years, Cumpio retained the tone of a radio broadcaster (she anchored a local show) as she spoke from the witness stand.
Khan said: “I trust that the court will review her case and in the absence of substantial evidence of the crime committed, will dismiss the charges against her and order her immediate release and appropriate compensation.” “During my visit to the Philippines in January 2024, I heard many similar stories of red tagging followed by arrest on fabricated charges for serious offenses and prolonged detention to harass journalists and human rights advocates,” she added on X. National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) Secretary General Len Olea, who attended Monday’s hearing, told Rappler that Cumpio sounded very confident on the stand.
“She was able to establish herself as a legitimate community journalist, exposing human rights abuses,’ Olea said. Meanwhile, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ), Asia’s oldest press club, urged the Philippine government to free Cumpio and protect journalists who are just doing their job. In their statement, the press club emphasized how Cumpio is facing up to 40 years in prison for what Reporters San Frontiers (RSF), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and other media watchdogs and human rights organizations have called trumped-up terrorism charges.
They noted that in the United Kingdom, a motion tabled in the parliament in October, demanded Cumpio’s release and described the evidence used to arrest her as fabricated. “The treatment of Cumpio is an attempt to silence messengers of truth and a clear violation of press freedom,” the motion read. It stated further that her incarceration was “yet another indication of the shrinking democratic space in the Philippines.
” Eleven members of the UK parliament signed the motion, solidifying their support for the NUJP and the International Federation of Journalists in calling on the UK government to use every diplomatic effort to secure Cumpio’s release. Our statement calling for the release of journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, who is potentially facing 40 years in a Filipino jail on trumped-up terrorist charges. pic.
twitter.com/bOGPLQiNBQ — David McNeill (@DavidMcNeill3) November 11, 2024 Cumpio will take the stand again on January 13, 2025, for her terrorism financing case. – Rappler.
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