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Interview With Prof. Jose Maria Sison
By Sonny Mallari
Southern Tagalog Correspondent
Philippine Daily Inquirer
July 25, 2003
Channel 7 has reported in Manila that the Dutch
government has ordered the freezing of all your bank
accounts and has also deprived you of all social benefits due to
you as a recognized political refugee.
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: You must be referring to the
July 15 ruling of the Utrecht municipal court that it does not
have the power to grant to me provisional measures (i.e. the
restoration of social benefits while the case about the
validity of withdrawing these is being tried in court). I
have instructed my Dutch lawyers to accelerate the
consolidation of my complaints against the punitive
measures taken against me and the violations of my rights.
The main case pertaining to the social benefits will soon be in
court at a higher level. My chances of appeal reach
up to the level of the Council of State in The Hague and
the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. I shall
be in the main complaining against the violation of my human
rights.
Would this affect the scheduled exploratory
talks with the GRP peace panel?
Reply: There is yet no date for
exploratory talks. In the first place, it is the GRP that is no
longer interested in resuming the peace negotiations with the
NDFP. The GRP is in cahoots with the US in trying to
pressure not just the NDFP chief political consultant but the
NDFP to capitulate by signing a "final peace
agreement" onesidedly drafted by the GRP.
However, the main interest of the US is in the termination of
the peace negotiations and in the escalation of US military
intervention in the Philippines. Bush and Gloria know
that the NDFP will not capitulate. Both of them love to escalate
war in order to cover up their wrongdoings and aggravation
of the economic and social crisis.
The NDFP is always willing to resume the peace negotiations with
the GRP in accordance with the framework mutually agreed
upon in The Hague Joint Declaration in 1992 and reaffirmed in
Manila and Oslo in March and April 2001. Under the
mutually acceptable principle of national sovereignty ,
the GRP and NDFP should make a declaration against the malicious
attempts of the US to claim jurisdiction over Filipinos who have
never set foot in any US territory and to foul up
the peace negotiations under the pretext of helping the
GRP to intimidate and pressure the NDFP.
The Macapagal-Arroyo regime has come out as extremely puppet and
servile by conceding to the US jurisdiction over Filipinos for
alleged acts committed in the Philippines. The irony of it all
is that the US is an imperialist power which claims
jurisdiction over its military troops even when they kill
Filipinos in the Philippines. The US has no ground whatsoever
for listing anyone involved in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations
as "terrorist" and subjecting him or her to punitive
measures abroad.
The GRP officials are truly puppets by letting the US do as
they please against Filipinos and by forgetting that there is
the Hernandez political offense doctrine and that there are
certain GRP-NDFP agreements like those on immunity and safety
guarantees and on respect for human rights and international
humanitarian law which should prevent the US from terrorizing
NDFP panelists, consultants, staffers and volunteers with the
trumped up charge of "terrorism".
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