Jailed journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio said the arresting authorities failed to present an arrest warrant when they were arrested nearly five years ago in Tacloban City.
Cumpio told the Tacloban Regional Trial Court on Monday morning that the raiding team forcibly entered their room at around 2AM and ordered them to lie face down before they were eventually led outside their room in a pre-dawn raid last February 7, 2020.
With their movement restricted, Cumpio told the Court they did not see what the operatives were doing.
Cumpio added that she and fellow-accused Marielle Domequil were also not shown any search or arrest warrant during the raid.
“We would have allowed them in our room [anyway] because we’re not hiding anything illegal,” Cumpio told the Court.
In her first time to take the witness stand, Cumpio revealed she was subjected to heavy surveillance leading to her arrest, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) reported.
“She showed a factsheet submitted to Altermidya and an alert issued by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility detailing incidents of surveillance between December 2019 to February 2020,” NUJP secretary general Ronalyn Olea said.
Olea added that Cumpio’s lawyers also showed photos of the other house raided on the same day that she frequented to interview progressive organizations such as Katungod-Sinirangang Bisayas (SB), Sagupa SB and Bayan SB.
The photos showed a signage that said “Planting of evidence is prohibited here.”
Cumpio’s lawyers also presented Katungod SB’s letter of request for voluntary inspection sent to the Commission on Human Rights-Region 8 as preemptive measure on Feb 6, 2020, a day before the raid.
“Frenchie’s narration reminds us of similar questionable raids during the time of Duterte. This modus operandi of ‘tanim ebidensya’ (planting of evidence) has been exposed, leading to many fabricated cases to be dismissed,” Olea said.
Olea added that Cumpio succeeded in proving she was a working journalist when she and four others were arrested.
Cumpio said that aside from hosting a regular radio show at a local radio station, she was also an active member of the International Association of Women in Radio and Television and the People’s Alternative Media Network (Altermidya) at the time of their arrest.
In Manila, Altermidya led a rally at the Department of Justice, urging the agency to drop the trumped-up charges against Cumpio and her co-accused.
Earlier, the US-based Committee to Project Journalists and Belgium-based Reporters Without Borders issued statements supporting Cumpio and her co-accused. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)