Members of the AlterMidya network, media workers, and campus journalists staged a protest at the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday, January 23, to call for the release of detained community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio as the trial began on the terrorist financing case at the Tacloban City Regional Trial Court.

In July 2021, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) accused Cumpio and church worker Marielle Domequil of terrorist financing with the funds found at the two’s boarding house at the time of their arrest on February 7, 2020.

Prior to the protest, media groups also filed a motion at the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 18 to reconsider its decision that is “in favor of the government” after the money seized underwent civil forfeiture, without prompt notice to Cumpio, Domequil, and their counsel.

AlterMidya, in its statement, recalled the red-tagging and harassment Cumpio faced before her arrest, which she believes were initiated by state forces as she frequently covered alleged police and military abuses in the region.

“At this point, we can no longer pretend that the police and military narrative of progressives being linked to what they deem as terrorist groups’ are valid. Too many cases of evidence-planting and forced surrenderees perpetrated by state forces have been exposed by different groups,” said AlterMidya.

Cumpio and the Tacloban 5

Cumpio served as the executive director of the local alternative media outfit Eastern Vista and a radio news anchor at Aksyon Radyo Tacloban DYVL 819. Cumpio also served as the editor-in-chief of UP Vista, the official student publication of the University of the Philippines (UP) Visayas Tacloban College.

Aside from Cumpio and Domequil, human rights activists Alexander Philip Abinguna, Marissa Cabaljao, and Mira Legion were also apprehended in a series of police raids in Tacloban City on charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. The five have been dubbed as ‘Tacloban 5.’

AlterMidya also said in the statement that the "slow pace" of the charges was "due in no small part to the prosecution's delaying tactics" in order to keep the detainees behind bars.

Cumpio also celebrated her 24th birthday, her third year inside the jail. Meanwhile, her colleagues in the media hoped that this would be her last birthday behind bars and that the charges against her would finally be dropped.