Today is the 24th anniversary of Bulatlat, and also our fifth year of calling for freedom for our colleague in the alternative media Frenchie Mae Cumpio and her companions, human rights defenders Marielle Domequil and Alexander Abinguna.
Like the past four years, we are joining a protest to reiterate our demands to drop the fabricated charges against Frenchie, stop the use of “anti-terrorism” rhetoric to intimidate truth-tellers and political dissenters, junk the Anti-Terror Law, among others. We mark this day by also standing with another colleague Deo Montesclaros, who, like Frenchie, has been accused of terrorism financing.
Yes, the arrest of Frenchie and her fellow human rights defenders coincided with Bulatlat’s founding anniversary. On February 7, 2020, the raiding team stormed into the apartment of Frenchie and Marielle, planted evidence, and accosted them to a police vehicle. Months before, Frenchie took note of suspicious men tailing her, and reported this to media watchdogs. She was red-tagged and her radio program labeled as “communist-propagandist” because she was speaking truth to power.
Bulatlat has also been repeatedly red-tagged, and branded as “terrorist-friendly” by the state for its consistent human rights journalism. Our website has been censored and subjected to massive distributed denial of service attacks. Still, we are here. Our very existence is resistance. To borrow a line from the movie, The Post, “The only way to assert the right to publish is to publish.”
Alone we cannot do it. A big part of that is because of our readers and supporters, and our reason for being – the marginalized and oppressed sectors, the ordinary Filipinos whose miseries and victories we strive to amplify in every story we produce.
And so, we will also never get tired of standing with Frenchie, Deo and other human rights defenders especially on our anniversary. It is our duty not to allow the powers that be to do as they please without a fight. We are pushing back against all forms of attack because we want to continue doing journalism for the people. It is our modest contribution to the people we vow to serve.
