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Black Propaganda Intensifies Against Sison on Time for Arroyo's Junket to Europe and Cuba
By Ruth de Leon
Coordinator of International DEFEND Committee
9 September 2006
We, the International DEFEND Committee, expose and condemn the systematic and intensified campaign of
black propaganda against Prof. Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the Negotiating Panel of the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and chairperson of the International League of Peoples' Struggle.
This campaign of vilification against Prof. Sison is timed with the junket of Gloria M. Arroyo and her retinue to
Europe and Cuba. It is calculated to draw away attention from the huge number of extrajudicial killings and
abductions of legal activists being perpetrated with impunity by the military and police under her regime since
2001. These gross human rights violations have outraged the people of the world and have drawn scathing
denunciations and demands for justice from European governments, the World Council of Churches, Amnesty
International and other human rights organizations.
Top officials of the Arroyo regime like executive secretary Eduardo Ermita, head of the Cabinet Oversight
Committee on International Security, and AFP chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr. have made patently
false accusations against Prof. Sison that he signed and issued orders of execution to the New People's
Army in 1984. Prof. Sison himself has debunked the lie by pointing out that in 1984 he was in solitary
confinement by the military and was no longer the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of the Philippines.
Undeterred by the exposure of the lies, the national security adviser Norberto Gonzales has proceeded
to boast publicly that the Dutch government is collaborating with the Arroyo regime in forcing out Prof.
Sison from the Netherlands and delivering him to the regime's sword in violation of Article 3 of the European
Convention on Human Rights which prohibits the direct or indirect delivery of any political refugee to a
country where he would suffer torture or any inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
The public should know that Gonzales, the puny Goebbels of the fake president Arroyo, is lying. The
judge-commissioner in charge of criminal investigations and the national public prosecutor of the Dutch
government have recently written separate official letters to the lawyers of Prof. Sison to deny that
there is any criminal investigation initiated against him in The Netherlands. The Philippine authorities
have no jurisdiction over him in the Netherlands and neither do the Dutch authorities have any jurisdiction
over events and circumstances in the Philippines.
We also take the occasion to deny the claim of the editorial of a Manila newspaper that Colonel Miguel
Aure was not a torturer during the Marcos regime. We reject the insinuation that he did not torture
Prof. Sison. As soon as he had the chance to meet his lawyer in 1978, Prof. Sison made a statement
to expose the fact that Colonel Aure was one of his torturers in November 1977. Prof. Sison suffered
protracted psychological torture through more than six years of solitary confinement.
No matter how hard the top officials of the Arroyo regime try to deflect attention from the escalating
extrajudicial killings and abductions the people's outrage worldwide continue to intensify. The international
community knows better. The official reports and findings of respected independent entities like Amnesty
International, the World Council of Churches, the different international fact-finding missions of lawyers,
journalists and human rights advocates point out the responsibility of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the military
and the police for the extrajudicial killings and abductions being committed with impunity.
-end-
For reference:
Ruth de Leon
International Coordinator
Committee DEFEND
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