By Tracy Cabrera

MANILA, Philippines — Amid the slow progress of the cases filed against the so-called ‘Tacloban Five’, advocacy groups and rights activists are calling for their release on the grounds that it is an injustice for them to remain in detention after more than four long years without a speedy trial.

Radio broadcaster Frenchie Mae Cumpio, 26, and humanitarian workers Mariel Domequil, Alexander Philip Abinguna, Mira Legion and Marissa Cabaljao were arrested on February 7, 2020, following a raid by policemen in Tacloban City, and charged with illegal possession of firearms and involvement in financial terrorism.

The respondents claimed the charges were fabricated and was just a part of the campaign to muzzle dissent during the presidency of the ‘strongman’ Rodrigo Duterte. Cumpio and the other accused appeared at the first court hearing in Tacloban city only on November 11.

The Amsterdam-based global forum of women broadcast journalists known as the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT), stated that Cumpio’s arrest and imprisonment were blatant attacks on the right to free speech and a violation of human rights.

According to IAWRT, Cumpio’s incarceration is a gross violation of the principles of fairness and due process and meant to render her speechless and stop her from exposing the abuse of power and human rights violations in her community.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) likewise demanded the young journalist’s immediate release, saying that Cumpio’s only mistake were the reports she had issued on alleged abuses committed by the military.

“She had been targeted by a strategy that sought to deter all Filipino journalists from investigating taboo topics,” RSF’s Asia-Pacific Bureau director Cedric Alviani pointed out.

In support, Carlos Conde, a Filipino activist and senior researcher at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, marked that the prolonged detention of Cumpio and her co-respondents is unjustified because “the length of time in jail is punishment enough, especially since the case is allegedly fabricated by the former Duterte administration as part of its crackdown against activists and journalists.

“We can only hope that the judicial process be expedited. No one should wait four years in detention before she can defend herself in court,” Conde stressed.

Early this year in January, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan, who personally visited Cumpio in prison, asserted the need to fast-track Cumpio’s case even as she noted that “(the) continued failure of the authorities to speed up the legal proceedings is a blow to the fight against impunity and to the quest for justice by families of victims.”