Press Statement
January 14, 2026
After more than five years of unjust detention, the fabricated charges filed against Amanda Echanis were dismissed today at the promulgation hearing at Branch 10 of the Regional Trial Court in Taguegarao City, Cagayan. Echanis, now 37, was arrested in the early hours of December 2, 2020, in a raid on her house in Baggao, Cagayan, by police and military agents, on charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
“The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) is celebrating this victory for Amanda Echanis and her supporters, and at the same time we condemn the Philippine judiciary for the long delay to this outcome, and the government for its grave abuse of judicial process to repress Amanda and the peasant movement for genuine agrarian reform,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy.
ICHRP had raised the case of Amanda Echanis and many other violations of individual and collective rights to the United Nations Human Rights Council in its 2021 INVESTIGATE PH reports.
“ICHRP calls for the release of all political prisoners held by the Marcos Jr government, numbered at 696 at the end of November 2025,” said Murphy.
Echanis said that during the raid she and her family were forced out of the house and alleged that the police and military agents planted firearms, ammunition, and explosives. She said the search warrant was only presented after the raid had begun. At the time she had a 10-month-old son and a one-month-old baby son, and her father, prominent peasant leader Randall Echanis, had been murdered by state agents in Manila in August that year.
Amanda Echanis was working as an organizer of Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women in Cagayan.
The arrest of Echanis was a classic case of “reyd-tanim-kulong” (raid-plant-detain), a scheme state forces use against activists. The charge of illegal possession of firearms or explosives is non bailable.
Echanis’ legal team, from the Center for Genuine Agrarian Reform (STRA), proved that the bag of guns and explosives used against her was found in a room which was not even used by Echanis and her child.
Many organizations and individuals formed the Free Amanda Echanis campaign to demand her release.
While in detention, Echanis released a poetry collection and was featured in an award-winning documentary, Bloom Where You Are Planted.
Already a graduate of the Philippine High School for the Arts, she enrolled in 2023 at the University of the Philippines as a creative writing student. She made history in 2025 as the first political prisoner to be elected to UP Diliman’s student council. She topped the race with over 4,800 votes.
Congress Representative Sarah Elagao of the Gabriela Women’s Party said, “Her five years in jail based on fabricated cases reflects the systematic use—and wielding—of our laws to silence the voices of women who stand firm and fight for land, human rights, justice, the fight against corruption, and for nationalist change.”
For further comment: Peter Murphy +61 418 312 301
