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<font size=4><b><i>A good interview follows!<br><br>
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<a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/pugh060907.html">Philippine
Revolutionary Leader Arrested in the Netherlands</a><br>
by Dave Pugh <br><br>
<a href="http://josemariasison.org/">Jose Maria Sison</a> has been a
leading figure of the Philippine national democratic revolution for
almost 40 years. He is one of the pioneers who revived the
anti-imperialist movement in the Philippines in the early 1960s, and he
was elected chairman of the
<a href="http://www.philippinerevolution.net/">Communist Party of the
Philippines</a> in 1968 when it was refounded on the basis of
Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. For nine years, he was the
most prominent political prisoner of the U.S.-supported dictator,
Ferdinand Marcos. After living for nearly twenty years in the
Netherlands as a political refugee, Sison is in prison again.<br><br>
On the morning of August 27, 2007, Sison was arrested in Utrecht,
the Netherlands, on trumped up murder charges. The Dutch police
kicked down doors and ransacked Sison's apartment. The Dutch police
also raided the houses of several staff members of the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and confiscated computers and
files in an attempt to shut down the NDFP's international solidarity
work.<br><br>
Sison has been in the crosshairs of successive U.S. puppet Philippine
regimes since his release from prison in 1986 as a result of the
"people power" uprising that brought down the Marcos
regime. While Sison was on a university lecture tour in Europe in
1988, the Philippine government of Corazon Aquino stripped him of his
passport. A year later, the military offered a one million peso
bounty for his "arrest, capture or neutralization." Sison
has remained a political refugee in the Netherlands since 1988 because of
continued threats to his life by the Philippine authorities. As
recently as 2000, a special unit was sent to the Netherlands to murder
Sison.<br><br>
In 1992, Sison was invited by the NDFP to be its Chief Political
Consultant in peace negotiations with the Philippine government.
The NDFP is composed of the CPP, the New People's Army (which has
established more than 120 guerilla fronts on all eleven major islands of
the archipelago), and 15 groups based among workers, peasants, women,
youth, the religious sector, the Muslim Moro people, and the many
indigenous groups in the Philippines. The NDFP's national
democratic program calls for the uprooting of imperialism, feudalism, and
bureaucrat capitalism in the Philippines, leading to the socialist stage
of the revolution. <br><br>
Over the course of a decade, the NDFP has held peace talks with the
Philippine government. The two sides have signed ten bilateral
agreements, including the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human
Rights and International Humanitarian Law in 1998. The CARHRIHL
requires both sides in the armed conflict to refrain from acts of
terrorism against the civilian population and soldiers who are hors de
combat. However, the Philippine government has undermined the
agreement by objecting to setting up enforcement mechanisms.<br><br>
More importantly, the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has violated
the CARHRIHL and international humanitarian law by orchestrating the
murder and disappearance of more than 1,000 civilian political activists
during the last six years. These activists have included workers
and peasants, priests and pastors, and members of the Bayan Muna (People
First) party that recently elected three representatives to Congress in
spite of massive voter fraud. <br><br>
While the Philippine army sends out squads of motorcycle-riding masked
soldiers to assassinate those whose only crime is opposition to a
corrupt, brutal regime, the revolutionary forces strongly oppose
terrorist actions and terrorism as a strategy. The NDF, the CPP,
and the NPA recognize that they must gain and maintain the active
participation and support of the people in the revolution. They use
their limited weapons judiciously and precisely only against the military
and those guilty of serious offenses against the people.
Nevertheless, the U.S. and the European Union have listed the CPP and the
NPA as "terrorist organizations" and have tried to blacken the
reputation of Sison by designating him as a terrorist.<br><br>
In response to a question on this issue at a press conference in 2002,
Sison replied, "Terrorism is usually associated with the
assassination of innocent civilians, the wanton destruction of property,
the maltreatment of captives and the like. These are precisely the
kinds of things that the New People's Army never does. The NPA is
treating the people humanely and is respecting their human rights.
It abides strictly by its own Rules of Discipline, and the organs of
people power follow the Guide for Establishing the People's Democratic
Government, which serves as the Constitution for the areas under NPA
control."<br><br>
The Dutch police claim that in 2003, Sison ordered the murders of two
ex-leaders of the CPP, Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara. At that
time, the New People's Army, based in the Philippines, announced that
Kintanar and Tabara were killed resisting arrest and were slated to be
tried by people's courts for serious crimes committed after they left the
CPP. Kintanar had been working for Philippine army intelligence,
and Tabara was charged with the murder of an elderly peasant
leader. The CPP publicly took credit for administering
"revolutionary justice" to Kintanar and Tabara. For
over 20 years, the CPP has stated that Sison is no longer involved in
operational decisions and that he serves the revolutionary movement in an
advisory capacity in Europe.<br><br>
<b>Why Now?<br><br>
</b>Why has Sison come under attack now? Over the past year, the
Philippine government has been on the defensive for its human rights
violations. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN
Special Rapporteur for Human Rights have issued reports harshly critical
of the Philippine government and army. After hearings in the spring
of 2007, 48 U.S. Senators and Representatives sent a letter to the Arroyo
government expressing concern that U.S. military equipment was being used
to commit human rights abuses.<br><br>
In July 2007 the Philippine Supreme Court dismissed a long list of
charges against Sison and 50 other progressives, including the murders of
Kintanar and Tabara, that spanned the period from the founding of
the CPP in 1968 to 2006. This legal defeat for the Philippine
government may have prompted it to request that the Dutch government file
the murder charges against Sison, which mean he will be tried in the
Netherlands instead of the Philippines.<br><br>
The Netherlands has a long and notorious colonial past in Southeast Asia
(Indonesia) and South America (Surinam and the Dutch Antilles).
Today, it is the third largest trading partner and the second largest
investor in the Philippines. Dutch conglomerates such as Royal
Dutch Shell (oil), Unilever (consumer products), and Phillips
(electronics) are well entrenched. Their exploitation of the labor
and natural resources of the Philippines is administered by the Arroyo
government and guaranteed by U.S. military equipment and
advisors.<br><br>
The U.S. government was quick to respond to the Dutch police
action. American ambassador Kristie Kenney offered to extend
support to the Dutch government to prosecute Sison. While the U.S.
seems to allowing the Dutch government to take a lead role at this point,
Sison could be kidnapped by the CIA or U.S. Special Forces.
According to the CPP in the Philippines, the U.S. government has had
<a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/sison020907.html">standing plans
to subject Sison to extraordinary rendition and to imprison him in
Guantanamo Bay or a secret U.S. detention facility</a>.<br><br>
At present, Sison, 68, is being held in solitary confinement in the Dutch
National Penitentiary, which was used by the Nazis during World War 2 to
imprison and torture Dutch resistance fighters. He is being denied
warm clothing and medicines for a heart condition. However, Sison
is familiar with prison, and his voice will not silenced easily. On
August 30, a march on the Dutch embassy in Manila was attacked by
truncheon-wielding police, injuring dozens of people. In the last
week, demonstrations have been held at Dutch embassies, consulates, and
government offices in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Sydney, Taipei,
Vancouver, B.C., Montreal, New York City, and Los Angeles, with more
actions planned. <br>
<hr>
Dave Pugh lives in San Francisco and works with
<a href="http://www.bayanusa.org/">Bayan USA</a>. <br>
<hr>
URL:
<a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/pugh060907.html">
mrzine.monthlyreview.org/pugh060907.html</a> <br><br>
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<br>
<a href="http://josemariasison.org/inps/PiovesanaJMS.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://josemariasison.org/inps/PiovesanaJMS.htm<br><br>
</a>Interview With Prof. Jose Maria Sison<br><br>
By Enrico Piovesana<br>
PEACE REPORTER<br>
Via Meravigli, 12<br>
20123 Milano, Italia<br>
20 August 2007<br><br>
Enrico Piovesana (EP): Prof. Sison, could you please tell us briefly
about your personal and political history, from your childhood up to
becoming an "International terrorist"?<br><br>
Professor Jose Maria Sison (JMS): I am not a terrorist. I stand for
principles and actions that are for the benefit of the people fighting
for national liberation, democracy and socialism. I am a Filipino patriot
and a proletarian internationalist, not an "international
terrorist" by any suggestion. Communists are not terrorists.
European governments are wrong for following the Bush line that
communists, progressive mass leaders, national liberation movements and
anti-imperialist governments are terrorists. The imperialist powers are
engaged in fascisation on a global scale.<br><br>
By my writings and political acts, I am well-known for opposing policies
and actions that harm or work against the interests of the people. I
stand up for the rights and interests of the people and support their
revolutionary struggles. I have strongly opposed micro-terrorists like Al
Qaida and Abu Sayyaf and macro-terrorists like the US and other
imperialist powers that kill large numbers of people through the daily
violence of exploitation, state terrorism and wars of
aggression.<br><br>
You can get the biographical information about me from the book, At Home
in the World: Portrait of a Filipino Revolutionary. At any rate, here are
a few facts. I was born on February 8, 1939 in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur,
Philippines. I took my grade school in this town and high school in
Manila. I took my bachelor and masteral courses at the University of the
Philippines and I taught English literature and political science
subjects in two universities. I was active in the anti-imperialist and
anti-feudal mass movement. I became the chairman of the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of the Philippines from 1968 to 1977. I was
arrested, tortured and detained by the Marcos fascist dictatorship from
1977 to 1986.<br><br>
I was released from military detention after the fall of Marcos in 1986
and rejoined the faculty of the University of the Philippines. I went on
a university lecture tour in the Asia-Pacific region and then in Europe
from late 1986 onwards. When my Philippine passport was cancelled in
1988, I applied for political asylum in The Netherlands. I am now the
chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines (NDFP) in peace negotiations with the reactionary Government
of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP). Ironically, it is in connection
with the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations that the CPP, New People's Army NPA)
and I have been blacklisted as "terrorists" by the US and other
foreign governments upon the lobbying of the GRP in order to pressure the
NDFP towards capitulation.<br><br>
EP: How would you describe the nature of NPA struggle: history, strength,
spread, activities, social support, mid-term and long-term
goals?<br><br>
JMS: The Communist Party of the Philippines describes the New People's
Army as the main weapon for protracted people's war and seizure of
political power along the line of the new democratic revolution under the
leadership of the working class in the concrete conditions of the
Philippines. The NPA was established on March 29, 1969, a few months
after the reestablishment of the CPP in 1968. It has carried out
fighting, political, productive and cultural tasks for more than 38
years. It is deeply and widely based among the people, mainly the
peasantry.<br><br>
It has more than 120 guerrilla fronts. It operates in 70 of the 81
provinces of the Philippines, 800 out of 1500 Philippine municipalities
and in more than 10,000 out of the 42,000 Philippine villages. It has
been instrumental in the establishment and development of mass
organizations and organs of political power. It has generated and
supported social programs and mass campaigns for the benefit of the
people in mass education, land reform, production, health, defense,
cultural activities and settlement of disputes.<br><br>
The goals announced by the NPA are to seize political power in order to
complete the new democratic revolution and establish a people's republic
and then to become the main component of state power and defender of the
people in socialist revolution and construction in the
Philippines.<br><br>
EP: What's your reply to those who say that nowadays a Maoist guerrilla
fighting for a socialist state is anachronistic?<br><br>
JMS: The NPA cannot be anachronistic by fighting for national liberation
and democracy against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes of
big compradors and landlords. It is the new democratic force that is
striving to defeat such anachronistic monsters as imperialism, feudalism
and bureaucrat capitalism which exploit and oppress the broad masses of
the people.<br><br>
By the time that the NPA succeeds in defeating these anachronistic
monsters, then the people shall have accumulated the strength necessary
for building socialism under conditions of an imperialism much weakened
by accelerated crisis under such policies as "free market"
globalization and global war of terror spearheaded by US monopoly
capitalism. The world capitalist system has a growing tendency to implode
because of the increased number of competing imperialist powers and the
growing resistance of the people of the world.<br><br>
EP: The CPP program states that the future socialist State will have
special relations with the People's Republic of China. Many people say
that NPA is even armed by China. Why do you still consider China a
revolutionary state, even if it has become a completely capitalist
country?<br><br>
JMS: At the time that the CPP program was formulated in 1968, the
People's Republic of China was still a socialist state and was
practically the center of the world proletarian revolution through the
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. But since then, especially after
1976, CPP documents and publications have been criticizing the
revisionists and capitalist restorationists that have prevailed over the
Marxist-Leninists in China. As you say, China has become capitalist and
is no longer a revolutionary state. I refer you to CPP documents and
publications criticizing and condemning "free market"
globalization in sharp contrast to China's conformity to this policy
pushed by the US and other imperialist powers.<br><br>
EP: Could you explain what the 'Oplan Bantay Laya' is and its effects on
civilians and political activists?<br><br>
JMS: Oplan Bantay Laya is a "national internal security plan"
patterned after Oplan Phoenix of the US in Vietnam during the late 1960s.
It seeks to destroy the political infrastructure and the guerrilla fronts
of the armed revolutionary movement. It is instigated by the US in the
context of its policy of global war of terror. The US has described the
Philippines as the second front of such global war. It has introduced
thousands of US military troops in the Philippines and increased military
supplies to its Filipino puppets to push them on a counterrevolutionary
rampage in the name of anti-terrorism.<br><br>
Oplan Bantay Laya has brought about the extrajudicial killing, forced
disappearance and torture of more than a thousand progressive legal
activists, including leaders of progressive mass organizations,
journalists, lawyers, religious leaders and other activists who advocate
human rights, social justice and just peace. It has also brought about
the brutal displacement of more than one million people mainly in the
countryside, in addition to a previous level of two million internal
refugees. The forced displacement of the people is calculated to divest
them of their land and to deliver this to foreign mining, agribusiness
and recreation companies.<br><br>
Oplan Bantay Laya aims to destroy the armed revolution and legal
opposition and to intimidate the people. But it has failed to destroy a
single guerrilla front of the NPA. It has only served to fuel the flames
of the armed revolution. The gross and systematic violations of the human
rights of the progressive legal activists have outraged the Filipino
people and the people of the world. The progressive legal mass movement
has risen up to a new level against the escalating acts of violence
against the people by the US and the local reactionaries. Even
international human rights organizations and human rights agencies of the
UN have pointed to the criminal responsibility of the Filipino puppet
rulers headed by Arroyo.<br><br>
EP: The situation will get worse from now on with the new anti-terror
law: the Human Security Act enforced on July 15?<br><br>
JMS: Indeed, the human rights situation will get worse with the
anti-terror-law, which is deceptively called Human Security Act of 2007.
The definitions of "terrorism" and "conspiracy to commit
terrorism" are vague and overly broad. It becomes very easy for the
Arroyo regime to take punitive actions against any individual,, any
organization and any party in the opposition. The punitive actions
include limitless surveillance, warrantless arrests, indefinite detention
without bail, proscription as "terrorists" and seizure of
properties and financial assets.<br><br>
EP: Do you think that under Arroyo's leadership, Philippines is going
backward to the Marcos dictatorship era?<br><br>
JMS: In many respects and to a great extent, the Arroyo regime is already
very much on the fascist road of the Marcos dictatorship. Especially with
the HSA of 2007, the Arroyo regime has gotten a license for martial rule
without having to declare martial law and comply with requirements set by
the anti-fascist provisions of the 1987 constitution<br><br>
EP: What is the role of US military in supporting Philippines troops?
Only training and logistical support or something more?<br><br>
JMS: The role of the US military in supporting Philippine troops is not
limited to weapons training and logistical support. It is to indoctrinate
the puppet officers and troops and enhance their subservience, mercenary
character and puppetry to US political and military plans in East Asia
and the world at large, It is to gain intelligence from the puppet forces
against the Filipino people as well as to provide intelligence to the
puppet forces in order to condition their thinking and operations. It is
to lay anew and develop the infrastructure for direct US military
presence and operations in the Philippines and for US military
intervention and aggression in Southeast Asia, East Asia and farther
afield.<br><br>
EP: Official figures put at 40 thousand the death toll of the 'People
War'. Do you confirm this number? Is it true that the conflict is now in
an escalating phase?<br><br>
JMS: It is wrong for anyone to ascribe the death toll of 40,000 or
whatever number to the people's war .. We must make clear that this
number refers to the people killed by the military, police and
paramilitary forces of the reactionary government in the course of
anti-NPA campaigns of suppression as early as during the time of the
Marcos fascist dictatorship. Since after the fall of the Marcos regime,
the number would have significantly increased to 60,000 with the count of
victims in the brutal campaigns of anti-communist military suppression
under the regimes of Aquino, Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo.<br><br>
Being the army of the people, the NPA strictly directs its fire against
the military, police and paramilitary forces of the oppressive regime.
There is an estimate that since 1969 the NPA has killed more than 30,000
enemy troops and wounded many more and the reactionary military and
police have killed around 10,000 Red fighters and more than 50,000
civilians. These figures exclude the casualties in the fighting between
the reactionary armed forces and the Moro liberation forces.<br><br>
EP: What about the peace negotiations started in Brussels in
1995?<br><br>
JMS: The peace negotiations between the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines
(GRP) have made some progress in the form of agreements within the
framework of The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992. The most significant of
the agreements is the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights
and International Humanitarian Law, which is the first item in the
substantive agenda of the peace negotiations.<br><br>
But under various pretexts, the GRP has blocked the further advance of
the peace negotiations by repeated attempts to require the NDFP to
capitulate and by repeated declarations of prolonged recesses, suspension
of talks and even the termination of the negotiations. The peace
negotiations become paralyzed every time the GRP demands the surrender of
the revolutionary forces and stops the negotiations as a process for
addressing the roots of the armed conflict and agreeing on social,
economic and political reforms for the benefit of the people.<br><br>
EP: What do you think about the other Philippine armed conflict: the one
between goverment and Moro Islamic Liberation Front? And what is your
opinion about the Abu Sayyaf Group?<br><br>
JMS: The Moro people have the right to national self-determination,
democracy, development and peaceful enjoyment of their ancestral domain.
They have the right to secede from an oppressive state and to demand
regional autonomy in a nonoppressive state. The Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) is waging a just revolutionary armed struggle along the line
of upholding, protecting and promoting the national and democratic rights
and interests of the Moro people.<br><br>
The Abu Sayyaf is different . It was originally organized by the CIA and
Philippine military intelligence in 1991 in order to make trouble on the
flanks of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). But when the MNLF
capitulated to the GRP in 1996, the Abu Sayyaf appeared to run out of
control of the CIA and Philippine reactionary military. Now, it is being
used by the US as pretext for the continuing presence of US military
forces in Mindanao and the entire Philippines.###<br><br>
<br><br>
writings of jose maria sison, go to
<a href="http://josemariasison.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://josemariasison.org<br>
</a>follow the defense campaign, go to
<a href="http://www.defendsison.be/" eudora="autourl">
www.defendsison.be<br>
</a>chronology of the persecution and harassment of JMS over the
years before the arrest of August 28, 2007, see
<a href="http://josemariasison.org/inps/ChronoPersProfSison.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://josemariasison.org/inps/ChronoPersProfSison.htm<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
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