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September
21, 2007
Professor Jose Maria Sison Addresses San Francisco
Crowd on the
35th Anniversary of the Declaration of Martial
Law in the
Philippines
The 68-year old
Political Prisoner under the Marcos Dictatorship Receives Accolades and
Moral Support from the San Francisco Audience
San Francisco--The sense of anticipation steadily grew among over 75
participants at a forum hosted by BAYAN USA and International League of
People's Struggle (ILPS) at the Manilatown Center in downtown San
Francisco. They were about to have a question and answer session via
internet audio chat from the Netherlands with the Philippine revolutionary
leader Jose Maria Sison. Sison was arrested several weeks ago by Dutch
authorities on trumped-up charges of murdering two-ex guerrilla fighters
in the Philippines. Sison was released on September 13 after a Dutch court
found no sufficient evidence linking him to the murders.
The program titled Justice for JOMA, featured a new 20 minute film by
Collision Course Video Productions. This video presented Sison's role in
the resurgence of the Philippine national democratic movement in the late
60's, his nine years of imprisonment during the Marcos regime, the threats
of his life that forced him into political exile in the Netherlands twenty
years ago, and his view of the current crisis of the imperialist system.
Doug Norberg of ILPS spoke about Sison's work as chairperson of ILPS. Dave
Pugh of ILPS suggested that a trigger for the arrest and detention of
Sison may have been the stinging fact finding reports by Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch and by UN Special Rapporteur Philip
Alston. The reports focused on the killings and forced disappearances of
over 1,000 political activists in the Philippines that pointed to the
involvement of the Philippine military.
Members of the local Filipino community read poems from Sison's collection
of poetry "Prison and Beyond", and shared songs in Tagalog and English.
San Francisco indie rock musician Sergio Robledo-Maderazo of From
Monuments to Masses, spoke of Professor Sison's contributions as a
cultural worker and artist.
Sison's voice appeared via live internet chat and answered a half dozen
questions including whether he has ever grown tired of the attempts by the
Philippine government to persecute him. Sison answered simply, "I thrive
on struggle. The more they try to silence me, the more resolve I have to
fight for peace and genuine democracy in our homeland."
In response to a question about the role of culture in the people's
struggle, Sison said that visual art and music is often superior to
political speeches: "Can you think of people memorizing a political speech
the way they can learn dozens of revolutionary songs by heart?"
Sison called on people to "remain vigilant and militant" in defense of his
political rights. Even after 17 days of solitary confinement and 7 days of
intensive interrogation, Sison stated that the Dutch, Philippine and U.S.
governments are still trying to silence him with the U.S. ambassador to
the Philippines offering to help the Dutch government prosecute him, as
well as the deployment of six Dutch intelligence agents sent to the
Philippines to fabricate more "evidence" against him.
The charges against Sison have not yet been dropped. The Dutch
prosecutor's office will appeal the decision to release him from detention
at an upcoming hearing on September 26th. Sison faces no criminal charges
of any kind in the Philippines. In fact, the same trumped up charges
against Sison were dropped by the Philippine Supreme Court earlier this
year.►
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Message of Gratitude and Solidarity
for Continuing Struggle
By Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle
19 September 2007
Dear Comrades and Friends,
Warmest greetings of solidarity!
I am deeply pleased and thankful to all of you for holding this discussion
meeting in order to focus on my case, reaffirm your solidarity, rejoice in
my temporary release from prison and prepare for the struggle ahead.
I am very happy to be free from 17 days of solitary confinement in a cell
2.5 meters wide, 3.5 meters long and 3.5 meters high and from 7 days of
intensive interrogation of 5 to 6 hours daily under overheated lamps above
my head. The Rechtbank of The Hague has found no sufficient evidence for
my further pre-trial detention.
For my release, I am very grateful both to my lawyers for their competence
in the legal struggle and to the parties, mass organizations, personages
and the broad masses of the people in Germany and many other countries for
their militancy in the political struggle to defend my rights and demand
my freedom.
The physical constraints and psychological torture that I had to suffer in
the Dutch Scheveningen version of Guantanamo reminded me of the same
painful experience which I had endured under the Marcos fascist
dictatorship.
But the pain in this latest ordeal is made more acute by the fact that I
have absolutely nothing to do with the false and politically motivated
charge of inciting two incidents resulting in the killing of certain
military assets of the Arroyo regime named Kintanar and Tabara. As a
matter of fact, I have nothing to do with these incidents. Thus, there can
be no direct evidence and no sufficient evidence against me.
The publications of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New
People's Army have repeatedly explained that the NPA teams assigned to
arrest the aforesaid individuals for certain criminal offenses upon the
order of the people's court had to give them battle because they were
armed and dangerous and resisted arrest.
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No less than the prosecution office of the
justice department of the Manila government has categorized the Kintanar
and Tabara incidents, not as acts of murder, but specific acts of
rebellion in the charge of rebellion against me and 50 others in the
Philippines. The Philippine Supreme Court nullified on 2 July 2007 this
charge of rebellion, including such specifications as the Kintanar and
Tabara incidents and the supposed evidence for these.
Nevertheless, the sword of Damocles still hangs over my head. The Dutch
prosecution office has filed an appeal before the Court of Appeals to have
me put back in pre-trial detention or solitary confinement. Right now,
according to news reports, six officials of the Dutch ministry of justice
and national police are in Manila to consult with their Philippine
counterparts.
I face tremendous odds. There are two imperialist powers and one puppet
government interested in destroying me physically and politically. You are
already aware that most of the testimonies against me in the charge of
inciting murder were produced in the US embassy and the rest in the Dutch
embassy and the former US Clark Air Base, now administered by the Manila
government. There is widespread concern that the charge of inciting murder
is merely the pretext for conducting raids and fishing for the evidence to
make a charge of terrorism.
It is therefore necessary for all of us to remain vigilant and militant
and to persevere in political struggle in order to defend the democratic
rights not only of myself but also many others like the chairperson and
members of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, the consultants and staffers whose
office and homes have already been raided. We must strive to stop the
escalating fascist acts of persecution against those who advocate and
fight for national liberation and the socialist future.
All efforts must be exerted to stop the baseless charge of inciting murder
against me as well as the scheme to trump up the charge of terrorism
against me and other Filipinos who have worked so hard to uphold, defend
and advance the cause of national freedom, democracy, social justice,
development and a just peace in the Philippines. We hope that the struggle
to defend the rights of persecuted Filipinos contributes to the advance of
the people's struggle the world over for national liberation, democracy
and socialism against imperialism and all reaction.###
Download audio
BAYAN-USA Bay Area Remembers the
Declaration of Martial Law in the ...
By gmawatch(gmawatch)
The unlawful arrest and detention of Jose Maria Sison in the Netherlands
is more evidence that the current Arroyo regime is bent on mirroring
Marcos' record of repression and violation of human rights.
GMA Watch - http://gmawatch.livejournal.com/ |
