Student leader and peasant organizer Amanda Echanis has been released after five years of detention. A Tuguegarao City Regional Trial Court (RTC) cleared Echanis of illegal possession of firearms and explosives in a decision dated December 27, 2025, but only made public on Wednesday, January 14.
According to the ruling, the prosecution “failed to establish all the essential elements” of the charges. The court also determined that “the evidence presented did not overturn the accused’s constitutional presumption of innocence.”
Echanis, an organizer for the Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women in Cagayan, was arrested with her month-old son in December 2020. In August that year, her father, peace consultant and Anakpawis party-list chair Randall “Ka Randy” Echanis, was killed in his Quezon City home amid the Duterte administration’s crackdown on activists during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of this writing, Randy’s killers have not been publicly identified.
Progressive organizations and human rights advocates heavily criticized Echanis’ arrest and detention, with Anakpawis saying that Echanis’ arrest was illegal on the assertion that evidence was planted.
Following her release, groups such as the Free Amanda Echanis Movement and the political prisoners support group Kapatid called on the government to free all political prisoners and end red-tagging, or the unfounded labeling of individuals or organizations as terrorists.
In a statement, Kapatid said that Echanis’ release was a victory, but it is “also an indictment of red-tagging, fabricated cases, and state repression.” The group also called to “hold accountable those responsible for fabricating cases and violating human rights.”
Activists Still in Detainment
Women’s rights organization Gabriela, in their statement celebrating Echanis’ freedom, also called on the release of Chantal Anicoche, a Filipino-American activist who went missing shortly after the New Year and was found after an encounter between the Philippine military and alleged members of the New People’s Army in Occidental Mindoro. Anicoche is currently in the custody of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and is being held at an army hospital, where she is receiving treatment for injuries.
The 2nd Infantry Division (2ID) said that Anicoche’s decision to stay in the AFP’s custody was “voluntary and performed without force or intimidation.”
Meanwhile, the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (French: Reporters sans frontières, or RSF) reiterated its call to release Tacloban journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio. Like Echanis, Cumpio was arrested in 2020 on charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives, as well as terrorism financing. The journalist and community radio broadcaster is expected to get the verdict on the firearms charges on January 22.
In November 2025, double murder charges against Cumpio were dismissed by a court, while the Court of Appeals dismissed a civil forfeiture procedure against her and ruled that there was no evidence linking her to terrorist groups, according to RSF.
“Six years of pre-trial detention, compounded by repeated procedural delays in a case that is clearly fabricated, constitute a serious miscarriage of justice,” said RSF Asia-Pacific Bureau Advocacy Manager Aleksandra Bielakowska.
