MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine court on Thursday found a Filipino journalist guilty of financing terrorism, a verdict condemned by press freedom watchdogs but welcomed by anti-communist rebel officials.
Frenchie Mae Cumpio and human rights preacher Marielle Domequil were sentenced to nearly six years in prison after being found guilty of financing terrorism by Georgina Perez, the presiding judge of the Tacloban Regional Trial Court in downtown. They were acquitted on charges including illegal possession of firearms and explosives, court officials said.
Ailene Balatay, the court clerk’s lawyer, said Campio and Domeguire were sentenced to 12 to 18 years in prison and could appeal their sentences.
The charges stem from accusations that Campio and Domeguire provided financial and other support to New People’s Army communist rebels in the eastern Samar province in 2019. They were arrested in February 2020 for illegal possession of firearms and grenades.
Both men have strongly denied the accusations. Activists say the charges against Campio, 26, are the latest sign of the risks faced by journalists in the Philippines, considered one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists.
Reporters Without Borders and its allied groups condemned the convictions as a “clear miscarriage of justice” and said an investigation by the media advocacy group found the charges against the pair were fabricated.
Aleksandra Bielakowska, communications manager for Reporters Without Borders, said in a statement that Campio’s conviction “represents a devastating failure of the Philippine justice system and the authorities’ blatant disregard for press freedom.”
“The Philippines should be an international role model for protecting media freedom, rather than red-tagging, prosecuting and imprisoning perpetrators of journalists simply because of their work,” the group, known by its French abbreviation RSF, said.
Reporters Without Borders said Campio was the executive director of a provincial news website and a broadcast news anchor when he was arrested in 2020, reporting on alleged police and military abuses and community welfare issues in the central-eastern Philippines.
Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of the left-wing Human Rights League Karapatan, said the court’s dismissal of charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives “confirms that the charges brought by state security forces were fabricated from the outset”.
“Yet the same lies and perjury were used to force convictions in the ‘financing of terrorism’ case,” she said.
Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, expressed dismay at Campio’s lengthy pretrial detention, adding that “the charges against her appear to be in retaliation for her work as a journalist, following months of ‘red-tagging’, surveillance, intimidation and harassment.”
The Philippine government’s task force overseeing an end to the country’s decades-long communist insurgency said those who criticized the ruling as an act of intimidation against journalists or human rights workers were resorting to “lies designed to obscure criminal liability through moral blackmail.”
“They were convicted of financing a terrorist organization — plain and simple,” said Ernesto Torres Jr., deputy secretary of the task force. “You don’t launder terror funds and then hide behind a free press or the Bible.”
Torres said those who disagreed with the ruling should consider appealing “not incitement, not international publicity or undermining the legitimacy of the justice system”.
