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Defend Committee Castigates National Security Adviser Gonzales
for Making False Accusation Against Prof. Jose Maria Sison
By Ruth de Leon
International Coordinator
International DEFEND Committee
22 September 2006
On behalf of the International DEFEND Committee and upon authorization by Prof. Jose Maria Sison,
I am issuing this press statement in reply to the latest false accusation of national security adviser
against Prof. Sison. This statement also serves as denial by Prof. Sison of the same false accusation.
Gonzales is out of his mind in making the false accusation that Prof. Jose Maria Sison is collecting
money from big companies abroad. Prof. Sison has neither the authority nor the means to collect
taxes abroad on behalf of the revolutionary government led by the Communist Party of the Philippines.
He is clearly the chief political consultant of the NDFP negotiating panel.
How does Gonzales have the license to utter any lie at will and get published so widely? Is he also
accusing the US, Dutch and other European intelligence agencies of incompetence in monitoring
and surveilling Prof. Sison?
Contrary to the innuendo of Gonzales, Prof. Sison is living an austere life because of choice, habit
and limited means. Because of the unjust "terrorist" listing" by the Council of the European Union,
he has been further constrained economically.
He has been deprived of his social benefits, including living allowance, housing health insurance,
pension and others, even as he is not allowed to work. He is prohibited from having any active
bank account and has been prevented from receiving royalty payments for his books.
The boss of Gonzales, Gloria M. Arroyo, her husband Mike Arroyo, their children and cabinet
members like Gonzales are the ones who have bank accounts and other properties abroad
that should be examined by the Anti-Money Laundering Council. The latest estimate of the
financial asserts of the Arroyo family runs into a few billions of dollars.
But of course, while they are still in power, the Arroyo family and ruling clique cannot be
subjected to financial investigation by the Anti-Money Laundering Council. It is the arrest
warrant issued by the Senate that has put into hot water agriculture undersecretary Joc-joc
Bolante, the bagman of the Arroyo couple in the PhP 3 billion fertilizer scam.
After Gloria M. Arroyo and her gang go out power, they will become subject to the anti-money
laundering and anti-corruption laws of the Philippines and other countries. If they succeed in
enacting the anti-terrorism law, they can also become subject to its terms, especially the
freezing of their bank accounts.
For the information of the public and the mass media, Prof. Jose Maria Sison is a political
refugee and not someone in self-exile. He is recognized as a political refugee by Dutch
courts. The offices of the Dutch judge commissioner on criminal investigations and the
national prosecutor have recently informed Prof. Sison and his lawyers in formal writing
that there is no pending criminal investigation against him. ###
Note: Below is the news article to which the press statement is responding.
Gov't tracking foreign sources of CPP funding, says Gonzales
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Inquirer
Last updated 10:43pm (Mla time) 09/22/2006
AFTER clamping down on their local sources of funding, Malacaņang is now going after the
financiers of communist rebels abroad.
The Palace has tapped the Anti-Money-Laundering Council to track down Philippine companies
paying revolutionary taxes to exiled Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison
on foreign shores.
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said he believed these companies with operations
overseas were the final source of the dwindling income of Sison who has been in self-exile in
the Netherlands for more than two decades.
Gonzales said that with the military's clampdown on the extortion activities of New People's
Army rebels, Sison has been demanding payment of revolutionary taxes from big companies
abroad.
One of the objectives of the Philippine Anti-Money-Laundering Council is to trace the financial
backbone of terrorist organizations, particularly in Southeast Asia.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced last July that the country has made its mark in
its anti-money laundering campaign by freezing over one billion pesos and filing roughly about
a hundred cases since the Anti-Money Laundering Act was enacted five years ago.
Since the inclusion of the CPP-NPA in the list of terror organization of the US and Europe,
Gonzales said leftist groups have seen the taps on their foreign funding sources close down
and this has forced them to make do with revolutionary taxes as their primary source of income.
NPA rebels demand payment of revolutionary taxes from politicians who want to campaign
inside territories they control or from big companies such as those engaged in telecommunication,
transportation, mining and logging firms operating in their areas. The rebels routinely torch
the business assets of corporations that do not pay.
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