The arrest of Prof. Jose Maria Sison is a conspiracy between the Dutch and Philippine governments to force the NDFP to capitulate in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations
 
Luis G. Jalandoni
Chairperson of the NDF Philippines Negotiating Panel
29 August 2007
 
On behalf of the Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), I condemn in the strongest possible terms the arrest of Prof. Jose Maria Sison, the Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, on the fabricated charge of ordering the murder of  Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara from the Netherlands .  The same charge has been thrown out by the Philippine Supreme Court in its decision on July 2, 2007 on the case filed against Prof. Sison and 50 others as completely without basis and politically motivated.  It is therefore absurd that the Dutch authorities who are very much detached from Philippine realities can recycle the same charge utterly disregarding the Philippine Supreme Court decision.
 
It is very clear that the whole affair is politically motivated.  The Dutch authorities and the Arroyo regime in Manila have conspired to persecute Prof. Sison and to pursue a political agenda meant to seek the surrender of the revolutionary forces.  The statement by a spokesperson of the Dutch Police Wim de Bruin that the filing of the case against Prof. Sison is exclusively a Dutch initiative has been contradicted by National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and Philippine National Police Deputy Director General Avelino Razon who said that they have been helping the Dutch police from January to July in building the case against Prof. Sison.
 
Furthermore, this conspiracy was carried out with utmost treachery and deceit.  Prof. Sison was lured into a trap.  The Dutch Police called up Prof. Sison to invite him to the police station because according to them there were new developments on the complaint that Prof. Sison had filed in 2001.  Thinking that it was about the complaint he filed on an assassination plot that was hatched by the then incumbent Estrada government against him, Prof. Sison brought with him some documents pertinent to the said complaint.
 
But when he arrived at the police station, he was separated from his three companions that included his lawyer.  They learned later that Prof. Sison had been whisked away to a jail complex in Scheveningen formerly used by the Nazis for detaining Dutch resistance fighters on the patently spurious charge of ordering the murder of Kintanar and Tabara.
 
As this was happening, seven houses of  persons associated with Prof. Sison were simultaneously raided in a manner one would not normally expect in a supposedly modern civilized country like The Netherlands.  The raiders forced their way into the houses breaking down some doors in the process and displaying uncivil conduct.  Some children suffered trauma as a result of their harrowing experience.
 
The marauding agents took away computers, diskettes, Cds and documents in an obvious fishing expedition.  The search warrant shown by the raiders did not specify what items they were searching for.
 
This abominable action taken by the Dutch and Philippine governments against Prof. Sison who is the Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP panel is a casus belli and will practically kill the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.
 
It is a grave miscalculation on the part of the Dutch and Philippine governments to think that by putting the squeeze on Prof. Sison, the NDFP will be forced to submit to the conditions being imposed by the Arroyo government on the NDFP in the peace negotiations that would amount to the complete surrender of the revolutionary forces to the reactionary and corrupt Manila government.
 
The revolutionary forces will never capitulate in spite of pressures from reactionary foreign forces in conspiracy with the regime in the Philippines which is extremely isolated from the broad masses of the Filipino people. The NDFP and the revolutionary forces the NDFP represents in the peace negotiations will never betray the just cause of the Filipino people for genuine independence, democracy and social justice. The Filipino people are determined more than ever to intensify the revolutionary struggle until total victory.#