By FRANCK DICK ROSETE
CAGAYAN DE ORO — Accused of financing terrorism, a journalist stressed that the case filed against him is baseless and that the government only wants to silence those who speak truth to power.
Pinoy Weekly multimedia contributor Deo Montesclaros expressed frustrations during a protest at the Department of Justice in Manila on Friday, February 7, as they marked the fifth year in detention over the same charges of community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and her colleagues.
“They want to scare us. Why? Because we want to reveal to the people the real Filipino society,” he said, recounting his stories about the indigenous people’s fight against mining operations in Cagayan Valley. “These are the messages and stories they want to remove from us. That’s why journalists are pressured, framed, imprisoned, and killed.”
Various groups gathered calling for the dismissal of the charges against Montesclaros and Cumpio, executive director of the Tacloban-based alternative news outfit Eastern Vista, who was also charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
Read: Women journos call for release of detained broadcaster Frenchie Mae Cumpio
On January 10, the Cagayan Provincial Prosecutor’s Office issued a subpoena against Montesclaros, including peasant activists Isabelo Adviento and Cita Managuelod, Karapatan human rights worker Jackie Valencia, and Makabayan-Cagayan Valley coordinator Agnes Mesina.
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The respondents were accused of being members of the Regional White Area Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and for allegedly gathering supplies and cash for the party’s armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), between 2017 and 2019.
They were ordered to submit counter-affidavits and other evidence to respond to the complaint filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Regional Field Unit 2.
“Why did they attack activists in Cagayan Valley? Why was I included in trumped-up charges? Like Frenchie Mae, I witnessed the problems in the society,” Montesclaros said in Filipino. “An attack on journalists is an attack on the core of democracy.”
Several media organizations condemned the charges filed against Montesclaros, who was also falsely labeled as a communist rebel by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) during a Senate hearing in 2020. These included the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Pinoy Weekly, Altermidya Network, the Filipino Freelance Journalists’ Guild, and the Photojournalists Center of the Philippines.
Read: Financing terrorism charges against community journalist, baseless
Read: Rights group assails financing terrorism charges vs Cagayan Valley activists, community journalist
Montesclaros, who has been a community journalist since 2017 and also contributes to international agencies like IMAGO Images and Alto Press as a photojournalist, called for the immediate release of Cumpio and the dismissal of what they believe are trumped-up charges against him and the activists.
“Most importantly, we call for justice to our fellow journalists who were killed; to Percy Lapid, Doc Gerry Ortega, and [former campus journalist] Randy Malayao, among others,” he said. (DAA)
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