A Northern Samar court dismissed the murder charges against detained Tacloban-based community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, but upheld the same raps against human rights defender Alexander “Chakoy” Abinguna.
In a resolution dated Nov. 6, the Northern Samar Regional Trial Court Branch 21 in Laoang granted Cumpio’s motion to quash alleged murder and attempted murder charges, saying the state wrongly arrested the journalist.
The court ruled Cumpio, who hails from Leyte, is not the same person alleged in her warrant of arrest and accusation documents, which listed a certain “Frenchie Cupio Armando” of Samar.
“[E]very aspect as regards the identity and circumstances surrounding the crime charged must be faultless and unblemished of any doubt and question,” the resolution read.
The court, however, denied Abinguna the same relief, saying his arrest was valid since the name in the said documents matched his.
Abinguna faces the same murder charges as Cumpio.
“His defense that he was not properly identified as actual perpetrator of the crimes charged are matters subject to the determination of the court, requiring presentation of evidence during trial,” the court said.
Rights group KARAPATAN said the court’s denial of Abinguna’s plea over a technicality “disregards the broader context of unjust prosecution,” subjecting the rights defender to prolonged detention.
“His rights to due process and to a speedy disposition of his case are continuously violated by the extremely slow pace of court proceedings, both in the Tacloban court, where his main cases remain unresolved, and now in the Laoang court, which refused to quash the charges,” KARAPATAN said in a press release Thursday.
Only in 2024 were Abinguna and Cumpio informed of the trumped-up murder charges, which implicated them in an ambush in Palapag, Northern Samar, on Oct. 18, 2019.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ independent investigation found no evidence linking Cumpio and Abinguna to such allegations.
Cumpio, Abinguna and three other rights activists, collectively known as the Tacloban 5, were arrested in separate raids over trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms under the Duterte administration in 2020.
Cumpio, alongside human rights defender Mariel Domequil, was also accused of additional charges of terrorism financing in 2021.
The Court of Appeals, however, nullified on Oct. 29 a Manila court’s decision to forfeit funds seized from Cumpio and Domequil, citing there was no proof the money was linked to terrorism as neither is designated as a terrorist.
RELATED: CA: No basis to forfeit funds seized from Tacloban 5’s Cumpio, Domequil
KARAPATAN urged the court to “correct this grave injustice” and immediately dismiss all trumped-up charges against the Tacloban 5, who have been detained for over five years.
“Every day they spend behind bars is a day stolen from their lives and their service to poor and marginalized communities,” the rights group said.
