Dear friends,
Below is a letter sent to the Dutch embassy in Manila in support of the political asylum application of Prof. Jose Maria Sison. We are requesting you to support the asylum campaign of Prof. Sison by writing similar letters expressing your support.
You may address your letters to:
Wim Kok Prime Minister, Minister for General Affairs Binhenhof 20 Postal Box 20001 2500 EA The Hague
Albert Hendrik Korthals Minister of Justice Post Office Box 20301 2500 EH The Hague The Netherlands email: voorlichting@best-dep.minjust.nl
Jozias Van Aartsen Minister of Foreign Affairs Postbus 20061, 2500 EB Den Haag The Netherlands email: minbuza@buza.minbuza.nl
BAYAN PUBLIC INFORMATION DEPARTMENT ________________________________
March 10, 2000
The Prime Minister, the Justice Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs thru The Ambassador Embassy of the Netherlands Makati City, Philippines
Dear Sirs/Mesdames:
It is with deep concern that we in the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patritotic Alliance-Philippines) note Philippine media reports that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), under the administration of Pres. Joseph Estrada, has sent to the Government of the Netherlands alleged proofs of Professor Jose Maria Sison’s “terrorist activities” in the Philippines. This is not the first time that the GRP has attempted to pressure the Dutch government into rejecting Prof. Sison’s just appeal for political asylum and repatriating him to the Philippines.
In this light, we respectfully reiterate that Prof. Sison and his family are indeed political refugees who have been and continue to be persecuted for their political beliefs and whose lives are consequently in grave danger should they be sent back to the Philippines. Their situation has been aggravated with last year’s collapse of the peace negotiations between the GRP and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), wherein Prof. Sison served as the NDFP’s chief political consultant.
The Estrada government, in its ongoing campaign to malign, harass and suppress its perceived political enemies, targets Prof. Sison, Luis Jalandoni, Fidel Agcaoili and other known leaders of the national democratic movement exiled abroad. Under its counter-insurgency program “Oplan Makabayan”, the government has launched a fresh attack on these aforementioned personalities marked by a sustained, multimedia campaign of vilification, disinformation and other psywar tactics.
Through this vicious campaign to demonize its enemies, the GRP wishes to hit two birds with one stone. First, it aims to discredit Prof. Sison and the NDFP leaders as “criminals” and “terrorists” and not part of any legitimate political movement or entity. Second, it aims to pressure the Dutch Government to expel Prof. Sision from the Netherlands, repatriate him to the Philippines -- in effect, turn him over to the GRP authorities -- thus giving the Estrada regime the chance to silence, imprison or even kill him.
But, as in all the previous efforts by the GRP, this latest demonification drive against Prof. Sison suffers from the same bankrupt line devoid of credibility and any moral authority.
Allow us to point out some facts conveniently left out by the government’s overzealous propagandists:
1. Sison was imprisoned under maximum security by the military on orders of then Pres. Marcos from 1977 to 1986. How can he join or lead revolutionary activities, much more order "summary executions" and "purges,” while in a high-security military stockade?
After his release in 1986, Prof. Sison was invited to undertake a lecture tour abroad. It was at this time that his passport was cancelled by the Aquino Administration, forcing him to live in exile until now. It is simply a lie to accuse him of being responsible for Kampanyang Ahos (Kahos) in Mindanao, which claimed the lives of hundreds of the CPP-NPA’s members and supporters unjustly suspected of being military agents, when he was not even in the country at the time.
2. The government trains its guns on Prof. Sison while allowing to go scot-free the likes of Benjamin de Vera, Arturo Tabara, Ricardo Reyes, Romulo Kintanar and Nathan Quimpo -- former leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines -- whom victims have pointed to as masterminds of Kahos and other such campaigns. They, not Prof. Sison, are the ones known to have instigated, implemented and defended these "anti-infiltration" campaigns. Perhaps not coincidentally, several of these discredited persons now occupy high government posts, head megamillion-peso cooperatives or give regular briefings to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Meantime, Sison's accusers deliberately skip or obscure the fact that since his release from military detention in 1986, he has consistently criticized and denounced Kahos and other similar campaigns as well as errors and weaknesses of the revolutionary movement which underlay such mindless campaigns. Moreover, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has repudiated and condemned these crimes since 1992, called those responsible to account (except for those who have left the movement or shifted allegiance to the side of the government and now enjoy the latter’s protection) and have apologized and sought to indemnify victims.
3. The number of victims of these “anti-infiltration” campaigns reaching to the hundreds and not thousands as bloated by the AFP, pales in comparison with the tens of thousands of documented human rights victims of the AFP, Philippine National Police and paramilitary forces since the time of the Marcos dictatorship and the three post-Marcos governments which followed. By the way, while the CPP-NPA-NDFP have punished and meted out disciplinary actions against those involved in Kahos and similar errors, not a single human rights violator during the time of the Marcos dictatorship has been given just punishment until now.
We trust that the facts as well your government’s objectivity, sense of justice and fair play will lead you to dismiss these recycled, trumped-up charges offered by the GRP as “proofs” of Prof. Jose Maria Sison’s alleged terrorist activities.
Respectfully yours,
Rafael Mariano Chairperson Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN)