Activist-student leader Amanda Echanis walks free after 5-year detention

After five years in prison, student leader and peasant organizer Amanda Echanis was ordered released by a local court in Tugeugarao City following her acquittal on charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. 

The decision was dated Dec. 27, 2025, but was only made public on January 14.

Tuguegarao RTC Judge Racquel C. Reyes-Aglaua found Echanis not guilty due to the prosecution’s “failure to establish all essential elements” of the offenses.  

She was cleared of charges under Republic Act No. 10591, or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act and RA 9156, both of which penalize illegal possession of firearms.

“Mere speculations and probabilities cannot substitute for the quantum of proof required in criminal cases – proof beyond reasonable doubt – and the evidence presented did not overturn the accused’s constitutional presumption of innocence,” read part of the ruling by Reyes-Aglaua. 

Echanis, an organizer for the Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women in Cagayan, was arrested with her month-old son when police and military forces conducted a series of raids in Baggao, Cagayan in December 2020.

The court observed that Echanis was staying in Room 2 of the residence where she was arrested, while the supposed weapons were allegedly discovered in Room 3. 

None of the prosecution’s witnesses could prove that the accused ever had the items in possession.

While still in jail, she became the first political prisoner elected as a councilor in University of the Philippines Diliman, topping the polls with more than 4,800 votes despite campaigning from detention. 

Call to ‘free all political prisoners’

Daughter of peace consultant and Anakpawis party-list chair Randall “Ka Randy” Echanis, she was taken into custody just four months after the death of her father, who was slain in his Quezon City home at the height of the Duterte regime’s crackdown on activists during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Dapat natin ipagpatuloy ang mga panawagan sa pagsingil ng hustisya para sa mga kasamang hindi pa ito nakakamit; kabilang ang kanyang ama na si Randall Echanis na marahas na pinaslang ng estado noong Agosto 10, 2020,” read the statement posted on the Free Amanda Echanis Movement Facebook page.

Activist groups intensified demands to free all political prisoners and end red-tagging, or the baseless labeling of individuals or organizations as terrorists. 

The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders, alongside alternative media publications, reiterated calls to release Tacloban community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio. 

Like Echanis, Cumpio was taken into custody in 2020 on charges of terrorism financing and the illegal possession of firearms and explosives. 

The court is expected to hand down its verdict for Cumpio on Jan. 22.