DEAR COMPATRIOTS and Friends,
I am happy to be with you. Somehow through electronic means, we
are able to go around the travel restrictions imposed on me by the
US and other governments.
I thank the national organizing committee for holding this conference
under the auspices of the International League of Peoples' Struggle
(ILPS) in order to focus on my case for study. I am highly honored
and deeply pleased to be invited as keynote speaker and given the
opportunity to contribute my views on the case and related aspects.
I thank you all in this conference for your solidarity and support
in defending me from the persecution arising from the unjust "terrorist"
listing initiated by Washington. I appreciate your concern not only
for my human rights and civil liberties as an individual but also
more importantly for the right of the Filipino people and other
oppressed peoples for national and social liberation.
I wish to express my views on the historical and current global
context of my case, my inclusion in the "terrorist" list
as a direct attack on the Filipino people's right to national liberation,
the facts of my persecution and the violation of my rights and certain
courses of action that have been adopted and undertaken to defend
myself and oppose the malice and inhumanity of the US, its imperialist
allies and the Philippine puppet government.
I. The Historical and Current Global Context
The terrorism and barbarism to which we are all witness in the
US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, we the Filipino
people experienced from the start of the Filipino-American War in
1899 to the end of the "campaigns of pacification" in
1913. We should always remember the blood debt of US imperialism
running up to 1.5 million Filipinos killed. We should also keep
in mind that the US instigated and propped up the 14-year long Marcos
fascist dictatorship. This rule of open terror served US economic,
political and military interests.
We continue to recall and condemn the barbarities of the US in
the course of aggressive wars and military intervention in China,
Korea, Vietnam and the rest of Indochina. We can never forget the
1965 massacre of millions in Indonesia, perpetrated by General Suharto
for the benefit of US, British and Dutch oil interests. After the
success of the butchery committed directly by the US or indirectly
through its puppets, the violence of daily exploitation by monopoly
capitalism and its local puppets follows and victimizes the entire
subjugated nation generation after generation and can only end upon
victory of a national liberation movement.
It is in the very nature of the US as an imperialist power to exploit
and oppress the people of the world and to oppose violently the
national liberation movements and the countries and governments
that firmly assert national independence. For the purpose of extracting
superprofits, the US has since the beginning of the 20th century
acquired colonies, semi-colonies and dependent countries and turned
them into sources of raw materials and cheap labor, markets, fields
of investments, spheres of influence and strategic points of control.
It has used the superprofits from the exploitation of the oppressed
peoples and nations to augment the profits it extracts from its
own proletariat and to counteract the tendency of profit rates to
fall within its national borders. But ever pressed to maximize profits,
the monopoly bourgeoisie keeps on raising the constant capital for
plant, equipment and raw materials and reducing the variable capital
for wages. The reduction of incomes for the working people results
in the shrinkage of the market. Thus arises the crisis of overproduction.
This kind of crisis provides the conditions for state terrorism
and wars of aggression by the imperialists as well as intensified
national and class struggles and successful revolutions by the people.
The economic and financial crisis that recurs and spreads in the
world capitalist system has become more and more severe in recent
times and has intensified a series of contradictions: those between
the imperialist countries and the oppressed peoples and nations,
those between the imperialist powers and some states that assert
national independence, those among the imperialist powers and those
between the monopoly bourgeoisie and proletariat within the imperialist
countries
Since the beginning of the 1980s, the US policy makers and strategic
planners have thought that the policy stress on "neoliberal
globalization" would solve the recurrent crises of monopoly
capitalism, particularly the problem of stagflation in the 1970s.
They have been hyping myth of "free market" to push denationalization
of client economies, trade and investment liberalization, privatization
of public assets and deregulation against the workers, women and
the environment. These have only served to accelerate the concentration
and centralization of capital in the US, aggravate the global crisis
of overproduction in all products and whip up financial speculation,
hysteria and collapses.
Since 2000 the US itself has plunged into a severe economic and
financial crisis, aggravating the global depression. Bush has come
into this situation with the notion of superimposing "military
Keynesianism" on the "free market" pretense of monopoly
capitalism. He wants to stimulate the US economy by promoting military
production and giving tax cuts, subsidies and bigger state purchase
contracts to the military-industrial complex. Unfortunately, hightech
military production generates capital growth for the monopoly capitalists
but not jobs.
Bush and the "neoconservatives" around him find the situation
favorable for pushing the Project for a New American Century, a
pipedream for a global Pax Americana that is supposed to be without
challenge and beyond compare. Since long before 9/11, they have
calculated that they can use the position of the US as sole superpower,
with overwhelming superiority in high tech weaponry, to expand by
force or threat of arms its economic territory and grab oil sources
and supply routes and to push the doctrine of preemptive war in
order to destroy any challenge from disobedient client-state or
any potential rival. Supposedly, this is the way for the US to realize
peace, human rights, the free market and democracy.
The 9/11 attacks have been extremely useful to the US, particularly
the Bush regime, in drumming up an "anti-terrorism" hysteria
to support a policy of war production and aggression and have been
the pretext for so many US acts of aggression and terrorism. The
US has unleashed wars of aggression such as those against Afghanistan
and Iraq, in collaboration with the UN and NATO in the former case
and with the British government in the latter case. It has turned
the Philippines into a so-called second front in so-called war on
terrorism. It has emboldened the Israeli Zionists to slaughter the
Palestinians. It has threatened Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Iran and
other countries.
It has established bases and forward stations of US military forces
in Central Asia, Middle East and South Asia and has brought up the
number of such footholds to 140 countries. It has imposed a draconian
law like the USA PATRIOT Act on the American people and required
US allied and puppet states to adopt similar repressive laws and
put the national liberation movements and progressive leaders on
the same list with such small terrorist groups as Al Qaeda and Abu
Sayyaf, previously trained and used by the US for counterrevolutionary
purposes.
Since 9/11 the US has once again proven itself to the world as
the biggest terrorist force in the entire history of human kind.
It launched the war of aggression against Iraq in gross violation
of the UN Charter. It prevented the UN from completing the work
of discovering whether the Iraqi government had or had no weapons
of mass destruction. Instead, it trumpeted the lie that by invading
Iraq it could locate those weapons. It has maimed and murdered tens
of thousands of ordinary people and destroyed entire communities
and the social infrastructure of Iraq with the use of bombs and
artillery fire.
In gross violation of the international law on human rights and
humanitarian conduct in time of war, it has arbitrartily arrested,
humiliated, detained under inhuman conditons, tortured and murdered
hundreds of thousands of people. It has caused the deaths of hundreds
of thousands and the misery of millions of people in Afghanistan
and Iraq alone. It has also encouraged the Israeli Zionists to slaughter
the Palestinan people and destroy their homes, all in accordance
with US imperialist plans.
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft have underscored the fact that
US imperialism is a superterrorist force by their public expression
of contempt for the Geneva Conventions and its Protocols and their
claims that civilians and fighters labelled as "enemy combattants"
are outside of the protection of international humanitarian law
and can be humiliated, tortured and murdered inside and outside
US military prisons and concentration camps. The horrors of the
US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq have shocked
all decent people of the world.
In sharp contrast to the US superterrorists, the revolutionary
forces of the the national liberation movement and the revolutionary
organs of political power of the Filipino people have stood and
acted responsibly in accordance with international humanitarian
law. In this regard, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
(NDFP) has deposited with the Swiss Federal Council a Unilateral
Declaration of Undertaking to Apply the Geneva Conventions and Protocol
I since 1996. It has carried out peace negotiations with the Government
of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and has forged with it
the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International
Humanitarian Law since 1999.
II. "Terrorist" Listing as Blackmail Against the NDFP
After Bush declared a new, permanent and borderless "war on
terror" in the wake of 9/11, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime immediately
expressed support and offered the Philippines as a hunting ground
and regional base for US military forces. The US and the puppet
government dueted about going after the Abu Sayyaf, a small terrorist
band, previously organized and handled by the US Central Intelligence
Agency. The top military officials of the puppet government loudly
boasted that the "war on terror" would induce the US to
give more financial and military assistance. They announced that
US military operations would be extended to the areas of the New
People's Army and would pave the way for the US to build the infrastructure
for the return of US military bases.
The cabinet oversight committee, including the defense secretary,
the national security adviser, the secretary for special operations
and the presidential adviser on peace negotiations, prepared a proposal
to the US government to designate as "terrorist" the Communist
Party of the Philippines/New People's Army and the chief political
consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
The proposal was formally presented by Macapagal-Arroyo to Bush
when she made a working visit to Washington in the third week of
November 2001.
It was on November 22, 2001 when Speaker Jose de Venecia called
me up from Mexico to inform me that the US would include me in its
list of "terrorists", unless the NDFP agreed to sign a
'final peace accord" prepared unilaterally by the Cabinet oversight
committee. Thinking that it was best to have an interface, I told
the speaker to come over to The Netherlands to discuss with representatives
of the NDFP what he was talking about.
Towards the end of November 2001, he came to The Netherlands with
the presidential adviser on peace negotiations, the chairman of
the negotiating panel of the Manila government and others. The NDFP
representatives and I made clear to them that the NDFP does not
capitulate and does nort yield to blackmail. We asserted that The
Hague Joint Declaration provides a clear framework for the GRP-NDFP
peace negotiations. Then the chairpersons of the GRP and the NDFP
negotiating panels drafted a document of understanding to resume
the formal talks of the peace negotiations, reaffirming The Hague
Joint Declaration and thereby blocking the attempt at blackmail
and the absurd demand for capitulation.
From the Netherlands, the GRP and NDFP delegations flew to Oslo,
with the common intention of signing the aforesaid document in the
presence of the then newly elected Norwegian prime minister on December
1, 2001. But, just before the meeting the GRP delegation informed
the NDFP delegation that word had come from Manila, specifically
from the defense secretary, for it not to sign the document. Thus,
the meeting with the Nowegian prime minister became a simple courtesy
call. Since then, the CPP, the NPA and the NDFP have more than ever
intensified their opposition to the entire range of US imperialist
domination and to the increased US military intervention in the
Philippines.
After his visit to Manila within the first week of August 2002,
US state secretary Colin Powell designated the CPP/NPA as a "foreign
terrorist organization" on August 9, 2002. The US treasury
department followed suit by listing the same and the NDFP chief
political consultant as "terrorists" on August 12, 2002.
The following day the Dutch government issued its "sanction
regulation" against the CPP, NPA and the NDFP chief political
consultant. Other governments like those of the United Kingdom,
Canada, Australia and eventually the European Council joined the
"anti-terrorist" lynch mob against me.
All these governments have shamelessly used the pretext of anti-terrorism
in order to slander and demonize the CPP, NPA and the NDFP chief
political consultant as "terrorists". They trangress the
right of the Filipino people to fight for national liberation. They
violate the rights of the Filipino people and my individual rights
under international law. They violate the principles of national
sovereignty and noncapitulation and the safety and immunity guarantees
in the GRP-NDFP agreements. They run against the resolutions of
the European Parliament supporting the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.
In fact, they paralyzed these peace negotiations for a long while.
III. My Persecution: Violations of Rights and Undue Punishment
By virtue of two judgements (1992 and 1995) of the Raad van State,
the highest administrative court in The Netherlands, I am a recognized
political refugee under Article 1 a of the Refugee Convention and
I am under the protection of Article 3 of the European Convention
on Human Rights (ECHR) and consequently the entirety of this convention.
Subsequently, the Dutch government (Justice Ministry) accepted the
aforesaid judgements but asserted that it could refuse legal admittance
even to one recognized by the Raad van State as a political refugee.
When it decided in 1997 that the Dutch government could deny legal
admittance, the Chamber of Legal Uniformity of the Aliens Court
paid lip service to the the aforesaid Raad van State decisions and
deliberately ignored the specific decision of the 1995 Raad van
State that if I could not go to another country, without being put
at risk of losing the protection of Article 3 of the ECHR, the Dutch
government had no choice but to grant me legal admittance and the
residence permit.
In the meantime in the Philippines, one false charge after another
against me collapsed. The charge of subversion was nullified by
the repeal of the anti-democratic anti-subversion law in 1992. The
charge of multiple murder fabricated out of the 1971 Plaza Miranda
bombing was dismissed by formal resolution of the Manila prosecutors
declaring that the charge was based on pure speculation. Thus, the
secretary of justice of the GRP made a formal certification in 1998
that there was no pending criminal charge against me.
Until now, there is no formal criminal charge against me in the
Philippines or anywhere else in the world, including The Netherlands,
where I have in fact resided since 1987. And yet I am put on the
list of "terrorists" serially and indefinitely and I am
subjected to what are deviously described as temporary restrictive
sanctions but which in fact are indefinite punitive sanctions.
All banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions
are prohibited from having any transaction with me. My personal
bank account has been frozen, including the amounts that have all
come from the social welfare agencies. Previously, the social benefits
for living allowance, housing and health insurance were provided
because the Dutch authorities had prohibited me (as asylum seeker)
from getting employment.
The Dutch authorities cut off these social benefits in connection
with its August sanction regulations against me. Then they repealed
those regulations and pretended to restore my social benefits. But
they had requested the European Council to put me on its "terrorist"
list. After my inclusion in the list on October 28, 2002, they terminated
all the social benefits. All border authorities are under written
orders to be constantly on the look out for me, as if I were a dangerous
criminal. Despite such calumny, I am allowed to travel on laissez
passer only for the purpose of attending the GRP-NDFP negotiations
in Oslo upon the request of the Norwegian government.
The European governments have been swayed by the US-generated "anti-terrorism"
hysteria, reminiscent of the anti-communist hysteria during the
Cold War. They have collectively and separately adopted positions,
decision and laws that are blatantly repressive and fascistic. They
empower themselves to do the most undemocratic and unlawful acts,
like arbitrarily arresting and detaining anyone on mere suspicion
of being a terrorist, depriving him of access to counsel and to
evidence and separating him from other detainees and keeping him
under conditions worse than those of other detainees. So far, the
Dutch authorities have not yet made a move to arrest and detain
me. But the sword of Damocles hangs over me. I am constantly under
threat of being arrested and detained on the false charge of terrorism
or being subjected to a US request for my detention prior to extradition
or extradition straight to a place like Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib.
My rights under the European Convention on Human Rights are being
so brazenly violated. I am deprived of the essential means for human
existence. The seizure of such means violate my basic right to human
life. The deprivations amount to punishment worse than that imposed
on convicted murderers who are provided in prison with the essential
means for human existence. The punitive measures have been applied
on me without due process. I have been ordered to leave the house
where I stay with my wife and my son. Thus, my right to private
and family life is put at risk and violated.
When my lawyers cite Resolution 1452 of the UN Security Council,
allowing transactions related to essential human needs and professional
fees, we are told by the lawyers of the Dutch government and the
European Council that no benefit comes to me from said resolution
because it is applicable only to those suspected of belonging to
Al Qaeda. Thus, my lawyers protest that even the suspected perpetrators
of 9/11 have more rights than I have.
I am subjected to worse material and moral damages due to the official
efforts of the US and other governments to demonize and stigmatize
me as "terrorist". Opportunities to share my knowledge
and experience as a teacher or to earn income commensurate to my
professional training and competence have been blocked. Potential
employers and partners are discouraged. For instance, a book-publishing
project has been delayed several times. But the loss of income is
nothing compared to the grave threats to my life and physical integrity
due to the official incitement of hatred and violence against my
person. The Bush regime boasts of having renewed the license of
its covert operatives to kill leaders who are deemed dangerous to
US interests and are labelled "terrorists."
And yet nowhere in the world can I be held liable for the heinous
crime of terrorism for the simple reason that there is no basis
whatsoever for starting a criminal investigation. Not in the Philippines,
because up to now the political descendants of Marcos have failed
to push the passage of their anti-terrorism bill. The most reasonable
and democratic-minded jurists know that there are more than enough
laws to handle the most heinous of common crimes. Philippine jurisprudence
upholds the doctrine of political offense, which differentiates
rebellion or revolution from common crimes. But with overweening
arrogance, the US and its imperialist allies seek to impose its
hysteria on the Philippines and usurp jurisdiction over enties and
events in the Philippines.
The Dutch government and European Council have acted unlawfully
to negate the absolute protection that Article 3 of the European
Convention is supposed to guarantee. At this point, you might ask
why the US, British and Dutch governments are collaborating so closely
to persecute me. They have always collaborated in opposing national
liberation movements and in controlling oil and other natural resources
in Southeast Asia. Their hands drip with blood from a long history
of colonialism and imperialism as well as well as from their more
recent sponsorship of puppet regimes of open terror, such as those
of Suharto and Marcos.
The US, British and Dutch monopoly firms are among the biggest
plunderers of the Philippines. They collaborate in exploiting the
Filipino people. To cite one current major collaboration, Chevron
and Royal Dutch Shell are the main partners in the Malampaya Sound
project, involving the exploitation of gas resources and the operation
of the long pipelines to Luzon. The US, British and Dutch governments
are accomplices in many current acts of aggression and plunder not
only in Southeast Asia but also in the Balkans, Middle East and
other regions of the world.
The matter of my being listed a "terrorist" by the imperialist
monsters is so serious because it involves not only my life but
also the integrity of the national liberation movement in the Philippines.
But sometimes I get a big laugh from the fact that I am not in any
way linked with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, unlike the Bush family
which has close relations with the Bin Laden family through the
Carlyle group of investors, which have big investments in military
production, oil and other enterprises dependent on state intervention
and state contracts.
IV. Courses of Action
Compatriots, friends and I have acted resolutely and vigorously
to expose and oppose the use of the false charge of terrorism against
me in particular and against the national liberation movement, the
patriotic and progressive forces and their leaders and members in
the Philippines. We are also conscious of contributing thereby to
the struggle of the national liberation movements in other countries.
We have adopted and undertaken several courses of action. These
include educational work, political action, legal action, negotiation
and fund-raising. The International DEFEND Committee and its country
committees and the International League of Peoples' Struggle and
its national chapters have been the most active in undertaking campaigns
and activities to arouse, organize and mobilize the people and to
raise resources for defense and for fighting back.
Let me describe the educational work. We have done various types
of information and educational work on the case and its various
aspects. We have published the pertinent materials in leaflets and
pamphlets, in email circulars and on several websites, including
the following: www.defendsison.be, www.inps-sison.freewebspace.com,
www.sisonlegaldefense.250free.com, and www.justiceforjoma.org. We
have held study meetings, conferences and seminars. We have encouraged
organizations to do so. I am happy that this conference is being
held. We have carried out cultural activities that defend me and
support the call for national liberation of the Filipino people
from US imperialism. We are urging further research, especially
legal research, to aid both legal action and political action.
Let me describe the political action. We have collected signatures
on petitions from the organized masses as well as the spontaneous
masses at public places on ordinary days and during marches and
rallies. We have also solicited the signatures and support of parliamentarians,
trade union leaders, academics, jurists, religious leaders, human
rights luminaries and other prominent personalities in order to
encourage more people to join us. We have carried out pickets and
demonstrations for the purpose of making protests and demands on
the case. We have successfully requested other organizations to
take up the case. We have joined international conferences and huge
marches and rallies against war and imperialism in order to condemn
the US as a terrorist force and to raise the issue of the "terrorist"
listing.
Let me also describe the legal action. We have filed complaints
in administrative processes against Dutch agencies mainly for terminating
my social benefits and violating my rights. We have laid the ground
for legal action in the courts, up to the level of the European
Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. We have filed a complaint before
the European Court of Justice (First Instance) in Luxembourg against
the European Council for putting me on its "terrorist"
list. In this case, the NDFP negotiating panel is an intervenor
in my favor. In each of these cases going to a European court, we
have an international battery of lawyers. The Amsterdam Clinic of
International Law based in the University of Amsterdam is assisting
us. The Philippine-based Public Interest Law Center is a participant
or cooperator in all the cases. It stands guard against whatever
legal mischief the GRP might do in collaboration with the US and
Dutch governments. There are also lawyers ready to fight any attempt
to use against me the US-Dutch extradition treaty.
Let me describe the method of negotiation. There have been several
opportunities for availing of the method of negotiation. The NDFP
has asked groups of parliamentarians to uphold the 1997 and 1999
resolutions of the European Parliament in support of the GRP-NDFP
peace negotiations. It has also asked the third party facilitator,
the Norwegian government, to deal with the obstacles posed by the
European Council and certain governments to these negotiations.
The NDFP has required the GRP to comply with solemn agreements and
to join the NDFP in reaffirming the following: the mutually acceptable
principle of national sovereignty in The Hague Joint Declaration
in order to frustrate the usurpation of jurisdiction by the US and
other governments, the safety and immunity guarantees in the Joint
Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees and the Hernandez political
offense doctrine in the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human
Rights and International Humanitarian Law. The formal talks in the
GRP-NDFP peace negotiations have been resumed recently upon the
premise that effective measures are sought and realized to remove
the CPP, NPA and the NDFP chief political consultant from the "terrorist"
listing.
Let me describe the fund-raising. We consider fund-raising important
because we need funds for publications and other necessities. Even
as my lawyers provide their services pro bono there are certain
unavoidable expenses that must be met. The legal defense fund is
under the care of religious leaders in a foundation based in The
Netherlands. There are various ways of raising funds: passing the
hat among the people in meetings, selling tickets to cultural affairs
and to lunch or dinner lectures and marking up, for the sake of
solidarity and support, the prices of books, CD-roms and campaign
paraphernalia (t-shirts, pamphlets and buttons). Recently, the fund-raisers
have asked me to record my songs and poem recitations on video clips
and CDs. I have agreed, in order to take on one more form of struggle,
which is instructive and yet entertaining.
In concluding, I express my deep gratitude to all compatriots and
friends who have joined and contributed to the campaign to defend
me and also those who have supported the struggle for national liberation,
democracy and social justice in the Philippines.
