PBBM, DOJ urged to end Filipina community journalist’s over five years detention

BAGUIO CITY (March 25, 2025) -- Press freedom watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) joining four other press freedom organizations is urging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Department of Justice to end the detention of community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, who has been detained for over five years.

Cumpio has been behind bars on charges of illegal firearms possession and terrorism financing.

CPJ with the other press groups in a joint statement said, the 26-year-old journalist’s case raises “serious concerns” over unjustifiably long pretrial detention and allegations that authorities had planted the weapons that led to Cumpio’s arrest in February 2020.”

Cumpio ended her testimony last Monday at the court, denying charges of illegal firearms possession and terrorism financing.

CPJ, which has been monitoring the female community journalist’s trial feared, “if convicted, she faces up to 40 years in prison”.

Though no verdict date has been set while a trial continues for those co-accused with Cumpio.

While Reporters Without. Borders (RSF) Asia-Pacific advocacy manager Alksandra Bielakowska vouched, "(Cumpio) is a talented journalist who, through her unwavering courage, embodies the future of investigative journalism in the Philippines.”  Her prolonged detention on bogus charges, she said, “is merely a ploy to intimidate her and deter all fellow journalists from reporting on topics of public interest. The Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Department of Justice must now drop the outrageous charges against her and  release the journalist without further delay."

Bielakowska believed, the circumstances of Cumpio’s arrest were deeply concerning, while citing the military’s claim to have found a gun and a grenade when they raided her home. 

Cumpio had pointed out that “someone planted the gun and grenade in order to incriminate her”.

The RSF Asia-Pacific advocacy manager stressed, “Cumpio’s) case highlights the disturbing “red-tagging” practice in the Philippines, where journalists are labelled by the army or the government as “subversive” or even “terrorists” when they cover issues deemed sensitive to their interests.” She cited how “in January 2025 that Deo Montesclaros, multimedia reporter for Pinoy Weekly, was unjustly charged with “financing terrorism,” similar to (Cumpio).”

The RSF cited that with 147 journalists murdered since the restoration of democracy in 1986, the Philippines remains one of the deadliest countries for media workers.  It ranked 134th out of 180 in the 2024 RSF World Press Freedom Index, the press watchdog added.