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False Charges of Murder and Robbery
Are Mere Propaganda Rubbish from Arroyo Regime
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
12 March 2007
So long as the Arroyo regime remains in power, there will be a constant
flow of false charges of murder and robbery against me, whenever the
New People's Army inflicts death casualties and seizes arms and other
military equipment in tactical offensives against the military and police
forces in the Philippines.
Hundreds of such complaints have been filed against me by the Philippine
military and police before government prosecutors and judges. These
complaints amount to nothing but propaganda rubbish from the desperately
isolated and brutal Arroyo regime. Quite a number of these cases have
been either outrightly dismissed or archived by the relatively more sensible
prosecutors and judges, with or without the representation of my lawyers,
because of the sheer lack of evidence and the lack of jurisdiction over my
person..
The recent internationally reported charge of multiple murder in Leyte
against Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, myself and 52 others and the
more recent charge of murder and robbery in Masbate are part of the
hundreds of false charges made against me. Under the direction of
national security adviser Norberto Gonzales, the Inter-Agency Legal
Action Group is under orders to complete 1500 false charges against
me before the end of the May 2007 elections. What a waste of public
money for producing propaganda trash!
The latest move of the Philippine National Police (PNP) is to propagandize
its supposed request to the International Criminal Police Commission/Organization
(Interpol) to issue "red notices" to seek the arrest of myself and the NDFP
negotiating panel chairperson Luis Jalandoni for the purpose of extradition
to the Philippines on the basis of a valid judicial warrant. But there is no
extradition treaty between The Netherlands and the Philippines!
I am used to false charges that come and go These are cheaply fabricated
by the Manila government. Remember that the 1988 charge of subversion
against me was nullified by the repeal of the Anti-Subversion Law in 1992
and that the 1991 charge of multiple murder against me was dismissed by
the Manila prosecutors in 1994 as something based on sheer speculation.
In 1998 the secretary of justice of the Ramos government certified that
there was no pending criminal charge against me. But since 2003 the
Arroyo regime has resumed the practice of fabricating false charges against
me.
On my part, I am not at all worried by the false charges being made against
me by the military and police minions of the Arroyo regime. I laugh off all
of them. Below are the strong factual and legal grounds for my confidence:
First, the charges are so patently false, malicious and politically motivated.
Second, the whole world knows that the leadership of the Communist Party
of the Philippines and the command of the NPA are in the Philippines and not
in The Netherlands.
Third, I am protected by Article 3 and entirety of the European Convention
on Human Rights and Refugee Convention.
Fourth, there is no extradition treaty between the Dutch and Philippine
governments.
Fifth, under Philippine law itself, I am outside of the custody and jurisdiction
of the Philippine government and cannot be arraigned and tried on any charge.
The Arroyo regime is trying to show off that it can put down its Filipino critics
anywhere in the world. But it only succeeds in exposing its callous intolerance
for my exercise of the freedom of speech and its contempt for fundamental
democratic rights. It has ignored the findings and conclusions of fact-finding
missions by human rights organizations, international civic organizations, religious
organizations and the UN special rapporteurs on various aspects of human rights.
The Arroyo regime is intensifying its campaign of vilification against me in a futile
attempt to counter the impending Permanent People's Tribunal in The Hague,
Netherlands, from March 21 to 25, which shall try the case of the Filipino people
against the Arroyo regime and its imperialist accomplices headed by the US, on
the three major charges of human rights violations, economic plunder and
transgression of Philippine national sovereignty. The case has been filed by
families of the victims of human rights violations, human rights organizations,
Bayan and the Ecumenical Bishops' Forum among others.###
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