IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Sison extradition, a US-Malacañang scheme--CPP

Press Release
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
13 January 2006

The Communist Party of the Phlippines today charged that alleged plans by the Dutch government to extradite National Democratic Front Chief Political Consultant Jose Ma. "Ka Joema" Sison to the Philippines is a "dirty US-Malacañang scheme" intended to deprive Sison of his status as a political refugee and make him an open target of either the "US terrorists and the fascist Arroyo regime's death squads."

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said that Malacañang wants the public to believe that it is the Dutch government that wishes to deport Sison. In fact, Rosal said, it is the US and its puppet, the Arroyo government that have long been conspiring to force Sison's repatriation.

Rosal said that the Arroyo regime has long been pushing Sison's extradition. He noted that last December, the Department of Justice (DoJ) included Sison name in an amended complaint that charges him with complicity in the 2001 killing of ex-Col. Rodolfo Aguinaldo. Information on the amended case was sent to The Netherlands in the form of a revised DoJ resolution dated 1 December 2005. Sison has vehemently denied involvement in Aguinaldo's death. The New People's Army has early on claimed responsibility for killing Aguinaldo, who gained notoriety during the Marcos dictatorship for his involvement in brutal counter-insurgency campaigns and the torture and murder of various political dissenters.

Rosal lambasted Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita for brazenly deceiving the public when he claimed on January 11 that the Arroyo government supported what he alleged to be Dutch government moves to have Sison extradited. In the same breath, however, he admitted that Dutch officials themselves had expressed reservations about the extradition. Rosal pointed out that in the absence of an extradition treaty between the two countries, the Dutch government had no obligation to send Sison back to the Philippines.

Rosal said that the US and Arroyo governments' persistence to have Sison extradited are all in violation of Dutch, European Union and international laws with regard his rights as a political refugee. He cited Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits the transfer of refugees to any country where they run the risk of being subjected to torture or any form of inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment and of being sentenced to death.

Rosal said that threats to Sison's life should he be forced to return to the Philippines are all too real, given the fact that the Arroyo regime has been at the forefront of campaigns to vilify him, the CPP and the New People's Army as "terrorists." He said that once in the Philippines, Sison will become an "open target of the Arroyo regime's fascist murderers."

"Under the Arroyo regime, anti-government activists, human rights advocates and leaders and members of democratic and progressive organizations have become fair game for Malacañang-instigated and AFP/PNP-directed death squads," Rosal stressed.

"Ka Joema has been one of the prime targets of the Arroyo government's campaign of state terrorism and villification. Arroyo terribly hates Ka Joema as he is able to inspire the Filipino people to rise up against her corrupt and rotten regime," added Rosal.

Reference:
Marco Valbuena
Media Officer
E-mail:[email protected]