|
|
PROLONGED INVESTIGATION OF SISON CASE
IS AN ATTACK ON NDFP AND PEACE PROCESS
By Luis Jalandoni
Chairperson, Negotiating Panel
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
21 January 2008
The Dutch prosecutor Ms. J. S. de Vries claims that the examining judge
Ms. C. M. Derijks has done something grievously wrong by declaring the
"untimely closure of the preliminary investigation" of the false and politically
motivated charge of inciting the murder of the military agents Romulo
Kintanar and Arturo Tabara against Prof. Jose Maria Sison, NDFP Chief
Political Consultant.
The claim of the prosecutor cannot be farther from the truth. The
examining judge based her 21 November 2007 decision to close the
preliminary investigation on the
13 September decision of the District Court of The Hague pointing to
the insufficiency of evidence against Prof. Sison and the 3 October 2007
decision of the Court of Appeals upholding the decision of the district
court on the lack of prima facie evidence and ruling further that the
charge has a political context casting doubt on the reliability of the
witnesses and the ability of Prof. Sison and his lawyers to cross-examine
the witnesses under current circumstances of gross human rights
violations in the Philippines.
The examining judge gave ample and repeated opportunity to prosecutor
De Vries to give substantive reasons to counter the two aforementioned
court decisions. But the prosecutor failed to do so. The two court
decisions and the failure of the prosecutor to provide substantive reasons
constituted the valid ground for the examining judge to close the preliminary
investigation. It is a big lie for the prosecutor to premise the continuance
of the preliminary investigation with the claim of wrongdoing by the
examining judge. It is also anomalous that the prosecutor stands publicly
in judgment over the examining judge.
The prosecutor is hell-bent on using the prosecution process to oppress
and run down Prof. Jose Maria Sison. She threatens to make the life of
Prof. Sison miserable not only with the patently false charge of inciting
the murder of Kintanar and Tabara but also with the possible expansion
of criminal charges under various laws against him and others.
But the prosecutor is apparently playing a role or doing a dirty political
job assigned by powerful forces, like the Dutch and other governments,
to persecute and destroy Prof. Sison as well as the representation of
the NDFP abroad, particularly the NDFP Negotiating Panel of which I
am the chairperson. Moral and material damages continue to be inflicted
directly on Prof. Sison and many other persons and entities whose papers,
digital files, bank accounts and other materials and equipment were seized
by the police upon the arrest of Prof. Sison on 28 August 2007.
The NDFP and the Filipino people are grievously offended by the injustices
done directly to Prof. Sison and other Filipinos in The Netherlands. They
are outraged that something never done before to a national liberation
movement like the African National Congress (ANC) and the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) is being done to the NDFP. The Dutch
government is either wittingly or unwittingly being used by Washington
and the Manila government to conjure and hype the illusion that Filipino
communists are killing each other, a line of deception used by the Arroyo
regime to justify the extrajudicial killings,disappearances and other human
rights violations. This deceptive line has been exposed by the reports of
UN Special Rapporteur Prof. Philip Alston, Amnesty International, the
World Council of Churches, Human Rights Watch and other respected
institutions.
The false and politically motivated charge of inciting the murder of Kintanar
and Tabara may just be a stepping stone to the charge of war crimes or
crimes against humanity or crimes of terrorism. The malicious political intent
of the US, Dutch and Manila governments may be to stigmatize and destroy
Prof. Sison and the NDFP Negotiating Panel and pressure the NDFP to
capitulate to the Manila government. But the scheme of these powerful
forces may only lead to the complete destruction of the peace negotiations
between the NDFP and the Manila government and the intensification of
the civil war in the Philippines.
There are indications that the Dutch prosecutor intends to expand the
charge of inciting murder to a charge of war crimes in order to get away
from the rigorous rule of evidence of direct and personal responsibility in
a case of murder to the rule of command responsibility. If this shift were
to be done, the Dutch prosecutor will be practically recognizing the
existence of a civil war in the Philippines and accusing Prof. Sison of
being a leader of a belligerent force under international law.
But it is utterly ridiculous for the Dutch prosecution to be accusing
Prof. Sison of command responsibility for war crimes under international
law. He came straight from nearly a decade of fascist imprisonment in
1986, freed from the charge of rebellion and subversion
Since then, he has been abroad for more than 20 years, always hounded
by false charges invented by the Manila government but never convicted
in any court. It would be a stark case of paradox if Gloria M. Arroyo
remains scot-free, despite the gross and systematic violations of human
rights in the Philippines, and Prof. Sison is imprisoned in The Netherlands.
Under the auspices of the US-directed policies of neoliberal globalization
and war of terror, the US and pro-US governments are capable of doing
anything to slander, harm or destroy any individual, organization or movement
that fights for national liberation and democracy. The Filipino people and the
people of the world must be vigilant, resolute and militant against the
cumulative attacks being unleashed by the imperialists and their puppets
against Prof. Jose Maria Sison, the NDFP Negotiating Panel and the NDFP. ###
|
|