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Message of Solidarity to all Forum Participants
in Sulyap sa Kalayaan: a Glimpse of Freedom
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples' Struggle
International Action Center's Solidarity Center
New York, July 29, 2007
First of all, I wish to thank BAYAN-USA, Anakbayan, the International Action
Center and the International League of Peoples' Struggle for organizing
this forum on political repression in the Philippines and for inviting me as a
speaker, together with the distinguished working class leader and legislator
Rep Crispin Beltran, my predecessor as chairperson of the ILPS International
Coordinating Committee.
I wish to express solidarity to all who are present and to all forces represented
in this forum. I am deeply pleased that in less than two months after Pamana
ng Panahon on June 9 I am once more interacting with you. Through the
magic of electronic technology, we are circumventing the barriers to my
freedom of movement put up by the "terrorist" blacklist of the US and the
Council of the European Union.
Since our last forum, so much has occurred. Ka Bel and I have scored highly
significant legal victories against the repression and persecution that we have
been subjected to. The two of us have benefited from the recent Supreme
Court decision invalidating the charge of rebellion and the false information
against us. The European Court of First Instance has also annulled the decision
of the Council of the European Union blacklisting me as a terrorist up from
October 28, 2002 to May 30, 2006.
At the same time, we continue to face grave challenges. There is no let-up
in the extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture and other human rights violations
in the Philippines. State terrorism is bound to escalate because the US-directed
Arroyo regime has now in its hands the oppressive and fascist law called the
Human Security Act. The socio-economic and political crisis of the ruling system
is driving the regime to further assault the people.
In my particular case, the Council of the European Union retained me in the
terrorist blacklist on June 28, 2007 before the decision of the European Court
of First Instance could come out last July 11. Even as I have been vindicated
to a great extent by the court, there is still a long way to go in the legal and
political struggle before I can obtain complete victory over the mendacity and
machinations of my imperialist persecutors and the puppet rulers in the Philippines.
I hope that in this forum we can further clarify the situation, the issues and
what we can do to combat the ever worsening exploitation and oppression
of the Filipino people by the imperialist powers and their reactionary agents in
the Philippines. There is the urgent need for the Filipino people to unite and
seek the solidarity of the people of the world in fighting for national liberation
and democracy against US imperialism and the Arroyo puppet regime. ###
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