Philippine journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio is serving a 12-to-18-year prison sentence for financing terrorism. She was held in pre-trial detention and denied bail for nearly six years before her conviction and sentencing on January 22, 2026.
Cumpio, executive director of the Eastern Vista news website and a radio news anchor at DYVL Aksyon Radyo Tacloban 819, was arrested on February 7, 2020, along with four activists in a series of police raids in Tacloban City, Leyte province. Cumpio and the activists were initially charged with and held for illegal firearms possession.
In 2021, she was also charged with terrorism for allegedly channeling funds and logistical supplies, including ammunition, to the banned Communist Party of the Philippines and its New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) armed wing, which has waged an insurgent war against the government for decades.
Cumpio’s defense lawyers denied both the weapons and terrorism charges, which they said were fabricated by authorities to silence her critical reporting. Cumpio was acquitted of the arms possession charges but found guilty of terrorism financing, which under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 carries a maximum penalty of 40 years.
As of late March 2026, Cumpio was being held at the Tacloban City Jail. She is expected to be moved to a prison near Manila after her request for reconsideration of her conviction and bail were denied, according to CPJ’s monitoring of her trial.
Cumpio regularly reported on alleged police and military abuses, according to news reports and a statement by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, a local press freedom group. Before her arrest, she faced harassment and intimidation from people she believed to be security agents, the statement said.
Authorities have accused Eastern Vista reporters of being associated with the CPP-NPA, a politicized practice of targeting journalists and activists known as “red-tagging,” according to news reports.
On April 17, 2023, CPJ monitored a hearing in Cumpio’s illegal arms trial in Tacloban City. At the time, her lawyer, Ruben Palomino, told CPJ that her trial was “pure harassment” and that there was “no legal basis” for the case against her.
In 2024, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression Irene Khan visited Cumpio in prison and called on authorities to expedite the cases or dismiss the charges.
In June 2025, CPJ’s Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi hand-carried a letter written by Cumpio to Khan in Geneva, in which Cumpio said the charges against her were a “well-orchestrated lie.”
Following Cumpio’s conviction, Khan and four other U.N. special rapporteurs called for her provisional release on March 5, 2026.
CPJ has worked with partners in the #FreeFrenchieMaeCumpio coalition to advocate for her release.