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The Persecution of Prof. Jose Maria Sison. Who is Professor Jose Maria Sison?. Prof. Sison is the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDFP) in peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
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Who is Professor Jose Maria Sison? • Prof. Sison is the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDFP) in peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP). • He is an anti-imperialist leader and Chairperson of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), an anti-imperialist formation of more than 300 mass organizations from more than 30 countries.
Instead of leading a prosperous life as an heir of a landlord family from Cabugao, Ilocos Norte, he chose to become a revolutionary who puts forward the interests of the people. He founded the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1968. • He is a known poet and writer. • He was arrested during the Marcos dictatorship. He was imprisoned for 9 years and experienced all kinds of torture like 3 years solitary confinement. But despite all this, he remained steadfast with his principles.
The Aquino government cancelled his passport in 1987. Because of serious threat to his life, he remained in the Netherlands and applied for political asylum. • Contrary to the Arroyo government’s propaganda, Prof. Sison has been living frugally for 20 years in the Netherlands.
Prof. Jose Maria Sison’s Arrest On 28 August 2007, he was arrested by Dutch police on a trumped-up case of “incitement to murder” of Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara. The New People’s Army (NPA) however, had already owned the killing of the two because of their crimes.
Why is it a trumped-up case? • On 1 June 2007, The Supreme Court of the Philippines junked the rebellion case against him and 50 others. The sworn statements of the widows of Kintanar and Tabara, accusing Prof. Sison of ordering the killings, were also junked by the Supreme Court. • There are no other criminal case filed in any court in the Philippines in connection with the killings of Kintanar and Tabara.
If the Hernandez political doctrine is to be followed, rebellion, and not murder, should be the case filed against Prof. Sison. The case filed by the Dutch authorities therefore violates this principle.
Why is it that the arrest is politically motivated? • The arrest of Prof. Sison was an initiative not only of the Dutch government. The connivance between the US-Arroyo regime and the Dutch government is clear: Norberto Gonzales and PNP Deputy Director Gen. Avelino Razon admitted that they provided Dutch police with “evidences” that could be used against Prof. Sison. They also said that they paid for the fares and other expenses incurred by the Dutch police.
Officials of the US government were quick to offer its assistance in prosecuting Sison. • It is the US government that has been primarily responsible for tagging Prof. Sison, the CPP and the NPA as terrorists.
Why is the Dutch government doing all this? • The Dutch government has long been persecuting Prof. Sison, denying him his right to political asylum. He is in a “legal limbo”: he cannot be sent back to the Philippines because of the threats on his life and yet he is being deprived the status of a political refugee. To this day, the Dutch government has yet to implement the decision of the Dutch Council of States recognizing Sison as a political refugee.
In denying him asylum, the Dutch government reasoned out that Professor Sison will cause “serious damage on the interest of the Dutch state… in particular with its responsibilities to other states”. It puts more premium on its relationship with the US and the Philippines. • As early as 1990, the US State Department had already expressed its interest in Prof. Sison’s asylum case as written in a paper entitled “Patterns of Global Terrorism”.
Just a day after the US included Prof. Sison, the CPP and NPA on its terror list, the Dutch government followed suit. In the Dutch Sanctions Regulation, which placed Sison on its own blacklist, the Dutch government used as justification US President George Bush’s Executive Order 13224 that tagged Sison as “terrorist”.
The Netherlands has substantial economic interests in the Philippines. It is the fifth largest foreign investor in the country based on foreign direct investments 2001-2006. • 27 Dutch firms are listed in the top 1,000 corporations in the Philippines, 5 of which are in the top 100: • Phillips Semiconductors, Inc. • American Power Conversion • Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Phils, Inc. • Lear Automotive Services • Bristol-Myers Squibb Phils, Inc.
The combined gross revenues of these companies have reached US$4.18 B, net sales of US$4.11 B and profit of US$326.47 B (at current rates). Pilipinas Shell, which is 68% owned by the Royal Dutch Shell, is the 2nd largest oil company in the country. In 2006, its gross revenues reached US$3.30 B while net sales reached US$3.297 B. The company gained US$127.57 M profit.
petroleum trading, oil and gas exploration (Vitol Group) • consumer product brands in foods, beverages and personal care products (Unilever) • banking (ABN-AMRO) • insurance (AXA-Life) • coco coir export (Rinos B.V-Corion) • ING finance group • retail industry (Makro) • solar energy (Shell Solar Philippines, Inc) • gas reserves in Malampaya was freely given to the Dutch multinational corporations • Premier Oil was allowed to dig the exploration well in Ragay Gulf, Bicol region
How were the rights of Prof. Sison and the other NDFP members and staff violated? • Prof. Sison was arrested without a warrant. The police tricked him into believing he was being invited to update him about the case he filed regarding an assassination attempt on him. • He was separated from his lawyer. Without the knowledge of his lawyer, his wife Julie de Lima, and his colleagues, he was brought to and detained in the National Penitentiary in Scheveningen, The Hague.
He was placed in strict solitary confinement. Visitors were not allowed. He was allowed to talk with just one of his lawyers for very limited periods.
Julie de Lima was not allowed to enter when she visited him. Clothes and medicines she brought for him were not accepted either. Even his own doctor could not visit him. • It was only after a week when he was allowed to read news clippings and watch TV. His own doctor was finally consulted by the detention’s physician. The Dutch government was obliged to give in to these small concessions due to the broad international support for Professor Sison.
Although the evidence presented against Prof. Sison in the August 13 hearing was weak, the court still extended his detention for another 14 days. • According to Michiel Pestman, Prof. Sison’s lawyer and a criminal law expert, the Dutch government is acting like a horse pulling the carriage of the Philippine government. He noted that had the accused not been Prof. Sison, he would have immediately been freed for sheer lack of basis.
The NDFP office and several of its personnel’s houses were simultaneously ransacked by Dutch police. They had no search warrants. They left no inventories of the things they took, like computers, CDs, DVDs, bank books, ATM cards, and documents which have no relation at all with the case against Professor Sison. What the police did was clearly a “fishing expedition”.
The house search was brutal. The police destroyed doors, aimed their guns and were not wearing uniforms. Juliet de Lima and Ruth de Leon were hurt when they were pushed onto the sofa. The raids traumatized two children and other minors. • NDFP members were not immediately allowed to contact their lawyers. It was only after their insistence that they were able to do so.
What are its implications on the peace talks? • Arroyo’s statement that “this is a giant step towards peace” is absurd. • The Arroyo government has again violated a GRP-NDFP peace agreement, particularly the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), because of its active role in effecting Prof. Sison’s arrest.
With the confiscation of documents and other materials, it is possible that the NDFP personnel and other Filipino progressives in the Netherlands could be targets of future attacks. • It imperils the peace negotiations. The aim is to demonize not only Prof. Sison and the NDFP but also progressive leaders and militant organizations in the Philippines and project them as criminals.
What is the context of Prof. Sison’s arrest? • The US, Dutch and Philippine governments are in a hurry to manufacture pieces of evidence that would support their claim that Prof. Sison is the CPP Chairperson and therefore a “terrorist”, especially in view of the recent favorable decision made by the European Court of First Instance declaring that the Council of the EU erred in putting Prof. Sison on its “terrorist” list.
The Philippine government has intensified the repression following the NDFP’s refusal to sign the so-called “Final Peace Agreement” , which in essence is a call to surrender. In doing so, it hopes that the revolutionary movement would give up and capitulate.
The attack on Prof. Sison is part of the systematic fascist attack against the Filipino people who, like Sison, staunchly expose and oppose extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations and Arroyo’s subservience to the US and its anti-people policies and programs.
The US-Arroyo regime thinks they can weaken the revolutionary movement and the oust Arroyo movement by arresting Prof. Sison. • The US-Arroyo regime is desperate. It is beset by a host of economic and political crises (the war in Mindanao, the Erap conviction, the reopening of the investigation on the 2004 presidential election fraud, etc.)
Our calls • Justice for Prof. Jose Maria Sison! • Stop the harassment against the NDFP! • Address the root causes of the armed conflict and say no to government’s militarist solution! • Forward the peace negotiations! • Stop the US, Dutch and Philippine governments’ persecution of Prof. Sison!
