Joma Sison says summons from Manila ‘malicious’, ‘futile’
Jofelle P. Tesorio, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau
Posted at Feb 13 2019 11:03 AM | Updated as of Feb 13 2019 01:37 PM
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/02/13/19/joma-sison-says-summons-from-manila-malicious-futile?fbclid=IwAR0sxaMF6MPQeKRpBTMVfCF504cKJTyGkjIF3_k1QIwRCnB2ivWM1tT03Iw
UTRECHT, The Netherlands – Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria ‘Joma’ Sison said the recent resolution of a Manila court naming him as one of two individuals with “unassailable links” to the CPP and the New People’s Army (NPA) in the government’s “terrorist list” is another futile attempt to bring him to Manila.
“The attempt to summon me to the Philippines is malicious and futile. It is a blatantly cheap political maneuver of the tyrannical Duterte regime which has become notorious for committing gross and systematic human rights violations for the purpose of terrorizing the people,” he said in a statement from The Netherlands.
In a February 1 resolution by Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19, it only identified Sison and Antonio Cabanatan, Secretary of the Mindanao Commission, as having “undisputed links” to the CPP-NPA, from the original 649 names as members of the CPP-NPA listed by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Summons will be served to Sison and Cabanatan so that the court can gain jurisdiction over the CPP-NPA.
Sison, who is currently exiled in The Netherlands, blasted Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and Judge Malager “for collaborating” to have him summoned to Manila.
“The summons to me from the Philippine authorities is worthless and ineffective in compelling me to appear before the Manila court. As a recognized political refugee in the Netherlands, I am protected by the Refugee Convention and by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits my deportation to the Philippines or even to a third country,” he said in a statement.
Sison added that there is no legal basis for the summons.
“The legal protection that I enjoy is well tested and proven valid and effective by the legal and judicial processes that I have undergone to have my name removed from the EU list of terrorists,” he said.
He said the European Court of Justice had already ruled in 2009 that his rights have been violated by being listed as a terrorist.
With the ruling, he added, it was established that he “had not been culpable for any terrorist act.”
“Since I was detained by the Marcos fascist regime in 1977, it had been impossible for me to act as an operational leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines or the New People’s Army,” he said.
Duterte, Sison said, should rather remove all obstacles to make way for the resumption of peace negotiations.
