Writer and activist Amanda Echanis was arrested alongside her newborn son on 2 December 2020. Nearly four years later, Echanis remains in detention, separated from her child.
The charge that was brought against Amanda Echanis—illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives—is one commonly used to apprehend activists, writers, and journalists in the Philippines who speak out against the government. Prior to her arrest, Echanis was an organiser for the Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women. She is also the daughter of late peasant rights and peace advocate Randall Echanis, who was mysteriously murdered in his home in 2020, months before his daughter’s arrest.
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Echanis’ hearings have been repeatedly postponed, denying her the chance to prove her innocence. PEN Sydney calls for an impartial and immediate investigation into the circumstances of Echanis’ arrest, into allegations that the evidence used against her was planted, and into the lack of due process in searching Echanis’ home. (According to Echanis’ legal representative, Luz Perez, a search warrant was produced only five hours after the police search had commenced.)
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Amanda Echanis is the author of Binhi ng Paglaya (Seeds of Liberation), which was published in 2023. She is currently translating work by the late poet Kerima Lorena Tariman into English, including her moving poem June 12 in Prison, published by the international literary journal Words Without Borders. Others are forthcoming in the US-based journal Poetry Northwest. This year, she was named a fellow of the Palihang Rogelio Sicat—an annual national creative writing workshop in the Philippines. It was the first time in the history of the workshop that a political prisoner was named one of its fifteen participants.
‘The ongoing detention of writer and activist Amanda Echanis is a damning indictment of the Philippines’ justice system. We urge the Philippine authorities to immediately conduct an independent and transparent investigation into the circumstances of her arrest, including allegations of evidence planting’, said Ma Thida, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.
Read more about Amanda’s case.