PRESS STATEMENTS & INTERVIEWS, 2001 - Present

Interview With Prof. Jose Maria Sison

By Ma. Lira S. Dalangin
Inquirer News Service
July 25, 2003

Atty. Marie Yuvienco gave me details of the Dutch finance ministry's order to the Utrecht municipality (dated march 7, 2003) to stop granting you your monthly allowance, monthly  rent, and medical insurance.

Reply: Atty. Marie Yuvienco and Jayson Lamchek of Public Interest Law Center can competently answer your questions about my cases at the Dutch and European levels.  I have sent you some materials to give you some grounding for your questions.

I was wondering if this was the same order the GMA 7 report I mentioned earlier was referring to  or could it be that today's report talked of a different order, which makes me wonder how much more persecution can you take!
Anyway, can you enlighten me on this?  was there really a new order by the dutch government.  What action did you take upon receiving the march 2003 orders?  What do you plan to do now (with the new order)?

Reply:  Last July  15 the judge of the Utrecht municipal court made a ruling  in Sison versus Ministry of Finance that the court had no authority to provide for provisional measures ( i.e. restoration of social benefits while main court case is going on).  In parallel there is a Sison case against the COA regarding the restoration of social benefits, to be brought to court soon. 

Ultimately, I shall file a case against the entire Dutch state in order to prevent several Dutch ministries and agencies from making me run around regarding the question of social benefits and the violation of my human rights.  I have the chances of appeal to the  Council of State (the highest administrative Court) and finally to the European Court of Human Rights.  My lawyers in cases arising from the "terrorist" listing in the Netherlands are Hans Langenberg and Dundar Gurses, assisted by four lawyers in the Amsterdam Clinic of International Law of Amsterdam University.   I have another set of lawyers  headed by Jan Fermon in opposing the European listing.

Are your other family members receiving separate benefits?  What are those? 
I heard there's an eviction order, too (i'm not just certain if it means throwing you out of the apartment or out of netherlands).  Can you also confirm this?

Reply:  On her own account, my  wife Julie receives benefits.  But these are barely sufficient for her own  subsistence.  We have been in deficit and debt since November 2002 because I have not been  receiving my benefits.  That’s nine to ten months already.  Moreover, the COA  (Dutch state agency) has not paid for our rent since January.  At the same time, there is a standing notice for me to leave my apartment.  The state no longer provides me health insurance. 

In an imperialist country, if you are not allowed to  work like me and you have no social benefits, you are  in  serious trouble.  The  US and Dutch imperialists are really cruel when they decide to attack you.   However, my problem is little compared to the oppression and exploitation that Filipino and Indonesian peoples have suffered in the hands of the US and Dutch imperialists since colonial times.

Are all these moves by the dutch government linked to your being declared a terrorist?
Do you see Philippine authorities' involvement?

Reply: All these moves are related to the "terrorist" listing first by the US and then the Dutch, European Council and other governments.  The  GRP officials, including Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her national security adviser and defense secretary, urged the US government to put me in the list, starting in October 2001.  They were beside themselves with glee when I was finally listed by the US and other governments in August 2002. The foreign secretray Blas Ople openly  urged European governments to put me in the European list.

All these GRP offcials are shameless puppets.  They  trample upon national sovereignty and concede  jurisdiction over Filipinos  to an imperialist power that zealously retains jurisdiction over its military troops even when they kill Filipinos in the Philippines.  It is utterly absurd that I am listed as a "terrorist" and yet there is no formal charge of terrorism  against me before any court anywhere in the world. 

How do you think this would affect efforts to revive peace negotiations with the ndf?

Reply:  The "terrorist" listing has been done by the US in order to take the chance of pressuring the NDFP to capitulate to the GRP  and, if as expected the NDFP does not capitulate, the US can escalate its military intervention against the revolutionary forces and people.  Both the US and the current puppet regime of Macapagal-Arroyo are responsible for practically scuttling the peace negotiations.  The main interest of the US is to terminate the peace negotiations.  Thus, the puppets are no longer interested in these.

The NDFP wishes to resume the formal peace negotiations with the GRP in Oslo or Beijing in  accordance with The Hague Joint Declaration and subsequent agreements.  But the GRP insists that the NDFP must first  capitulate by signing a "final peace agreement" which the GRP drafted all  by itself. After so long trying to intimidate and bully the NDFP chief political consultant and the NDFP negotiating panel, the GRP should realize that  the formal peace negotiations can be resumed only within the framework mutually agreed upon in The Hague in 1992 and mutually reaffirmed  in  Manila and Oslo in March and  April 2001.