Rights group slams new murder raps vs detained community journalist

A human rights group condemned the additional murder charges filed against detained community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio on Aug. 3, calling them “trumped-up” and part of a pattern of judicial harassment under the Marcos administration.

Karapatan said Cumpio and fellow human rights worker Alexander Philip Abinguna are being targeted for their activism in Eastern Visayas, particularly for exposing military abuses.

“These charges were based on fabricated testimonies of paramilitary personnel and soldiers, using their highly questionable means of presenting a gallery of pictures of activists who have been subject [to] threats and surveillance by the military and the NTF-ELCAC,” Karapatan said in a statement.

Cumpio, then executive director of community-based news outlet Eastern Vista, was arrested on Feb. 7, 2020, for alleged illegal possession of firearms and explosives after police raided what they claimed were communist safe houses in Tacloban City.

She was arrested alongside Abinguna and three other activists.

On top of these charges, Cumpio is now facing “double murder” and “multiple attempted murder” complaints over the deaths of two soldiers killed in a 2019 ambush in Palapag, Northern Samar.

The charges were revealed by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which conducted a fact-finding mission into her case and released a statement last Friday.

According to RSF, police “quietly” submitted a report weeks before Cumpio’s 2020 arrest, linking her to the Oct. 18, 2019 ambush that occurred over seven hours away from Tacloban.

Cumpio was reportedly unaware of the murder complaints until recently, even though local courts had already issued arrest warrants in September 2020 and August 2021.

RSF said the complaints were “unsubstantiated” and lacked material evidence placing Cumpio at the scene.

They also noted that Cumpio had been under surveillance by the military for months before her arrest, which would have made it “unlikely” for her to be present at the ambush site unnoticed.

Karapatan also said that Abinguna, who was charged alongside her, was a guest speaker at a school forum at the time of the incident.

Both Cumpio and Abinguna, the group said, have long been in the “crosshairs of the military.”

Cumpio had “no official knowledge” of the murder charges until recently, RSF said, citing information gaps and delays in legal notification.

Karapatan only found out after the families of the slain soldiers filed a complaint before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Region 8, according to secretary general Cristina Palabay.

RSF criticized the CHR for initiating an investigation into the ambush, calling it “an apparent deviation from its core mandate.”

The CHR told RSF the case was closed due to “lack of sufficient evidence,” but has not responded to media inquiries.

RSF said the military’s case relied on the testimony of “former communist rebels.”

An alleged survivor of the ambush—an army auxiliary—claimed to have identified five of the attackers, including Cumpio, saying he “immediately recognized” her due to her alleged recruitment efforts for the New People’s Army.

But another paramilitary witness did not name Cumpio among the assailants in his sworn statement, according to RSF.

“At the time, Frenchie was already a well-known journalist in the region. Had she been identified as linked to such activities, she would likely have already been arrested,” RSF said.

RSF is a Paris-based nonprofit advocating press freedom and the safety of journalists worldwide.