PRESS COMMUNIQUÉ

7 September 2007

INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN

TO FREE JOSE MARIA SISON LAUNCHED

(Utrecht, The Netherlands) -- Friends, comrades and colleagues of detained Philippine revolutionary leader Professor Jose Maria Sison gathered Wednesday in this city, at the international information office of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), to launch the “Free Jose Ma. Sison Campaign”.

They packed the office of the NDFP to draw up plans to campaign for the immediate release of Prof. Sison or Joma, who was arrested last 28 August on trumped up and politically-motivated charges of ordering the deaths of two security agents in the Philippines in 2003 and 2004.

Prof. Sison remains in detention at the National Penitentiary in Scheveningen in The Hague. His wife is not allowed to visit him, only his lawyer, Michiel Pestman of the Böhler Franken Koppe and Wijngaarden law office. On 7 September, three judges heard arguments on whether he would be released or remain in detention for 90 more days. According to court officials at The Hague, the judges' decision will be released on 13 September, at the latest.

Luis G. Jalandoni, chairperson of the Negotiating Panel of the NDFP, shared with the campaign's initiators a brief account of the case. He called the arrest of Sison “treacherous” and the forcible searches conducted by the Dutch police on his house and that of several other Filipino progressives in Utrecht as a “fishing expedition”. Jalandoni said it was a big police operation involving about 100 police agents.

Jalandoni explained that Joma is being unjustly accused of ordering from Dutch soil the deaths of Romulo Kintanar in 2003 and Arturo Tabara in 2004. These two, he said, were former leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines who became renegades in 1993 after they refused accountability for grave errors they committed within the revolutionary movement. They had since become armed security agents of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, he said, and had engaged in kidnap-for-ransom activities, extortion and other criminal activities.

Jalandoni added that similar charges had been filed against Professor Sison in the Philippines but that these were dismissed by the Philippine Supreme Court last 2 July 2007 as being without merit and politically motivated.

Quoting Pestman, Jalandoni said “there is absolutely no evidence against Joma”. The lawyer also clarified that if the three judges decide to keep Joma for 90 more days, he can appeal that decision before the Court of Appeals.

“Joma is in high spirits,” Jalandoni said, quoting the lawyer. “Despite the continuous interrogations and pressure on him, Joma has not said anything that will incriminate himself”, Jalandoni added.

During the short exchange among the campaign initiators, a question was asked why the Dutch government continues to persecute Joma and other Filipino patriots in the Netherlands. The answers came pouring in from the initiators themselves: the Dutch government has big economic interests in the Philippines, namely oil exploration and trade, and is now the third largest foreign investor in the Philippines; the Dutch government has been taken in by the Manila government; the Dutch government follows closely what the US government tells it to do regarding the so-called war on terror.

The initiators agreed that the 7 September court appearance of Joma would be the immediate focus of concern, and they agreed to mobilize for a protest picket in front of the Palace of Justice in The Hague.

The Free Jose Ma. Sison Campaign vowed to form “Free Jose Ma. Sison Committees” in major European countries, in North America, Canada, Asia-Pacific, Australia, Africa and even the Middle East, that will conduct militant protest actions calling for the freedom of the imprisoned revolutionary.

Initiators said they will conduct a broad-based solidarity campaign and vigorous information drive on the case of Joma, on the crimes against humanity being committed by the US-backed Arroyo regime, and the patriotic and democratic struggle of the Filipino people to bring to justice the Arroyo regime, and to achieve genuine freedom, democracy, justice and peace; on the accountability of the Dutch government in the violations of the civil liberties of Joma and other Filipino patriots; and on the collaboration of the US, Dutch and Philippine authorities to suppress the Filipino people’s resistance. 

It was decided that Prof. Sison's wife, Julie de Lima and Theo Droog of the Netherlands-Philippines Solidarity Movement will be the spokespersons of the international campaign.

The Free Joma Sison Campaign is being initiated by the International Committee Defend, International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), and Friends of the Filipino People from around the world. ###

For Reference:

THEO DROOG

Email: enefes@demon.nl

Telephone: 00-31-638155082

Communique in Word format

■   Netherlands sharing of intelligence info with Philippine government will endanger the lives of Arroyo political opponents - Luis Jalandoni

They call it The Palace of Injustice

where the August 31 and September 7 hearings were held

SISON'S WIFE RECOUNTS RAID
Written by Julieta de Lima
Thursday, 06 September 2007 (from www.zumel.com)

I am Julieta de Lima and Prof. Jose Maria Sison is my husband. Together we reside at Rooseveltlaan 778 in Utrecht.

In the morning of 28 August at around 8:45, my husband left for a 9:30 appointment at the Overvecht police station. A person who identified himself as Mr. Vogel had arranged the appointment through a telephone call to my husband on Friday, 24 August. The caller said he was seeking an appointment because of new developments on a case which my husband lodged with the police in 2001.

As soon as my husband left for the appointment, I took my coffee while checking my email and after some 30 minutes, I decided to do a quick cleaning up and tidying of the apartment, starting with the bathroom. As I started to scrub the bathroom floor tiles, I heard strong pounding sound from the direction of the front door. I stood up and moved from the bathroom through the kitchen but before I could reach the corridor to the front door two or more men blocked my way and I saw several other men, some with pistols drawn, rushing into all the rooms in the apartment. At the top of my voice I asked who they were and what they were doing.

As I moved towards the living room, a man whom I presume to be the team leader said they were the police and they were to conduct a search. I demanded to be presented with a search warrant specifying what they were after or else they should leave. But they could not show any warrant. Two or three from among the team told me that in the Netherlands a search warrant was not required and that a search without a warrant was legal. They said the judge would come.

I then demanded to call my lawyer, Mr Bernard Tomlow, but they refused and said that the judge who was coming would decide whether or not I could call my lawyer. They forced me to sit down and when I stood up to try to get to a phone, I was manhandled and forced down on a chair. So, for a while I kept calling out at the top of my voice, “Help! I want my lawyer!” I took quite some time before the judge could come. When he arrived, I asked for his credentials and he showed me his identification card, which had the name L.K. v. Zaltbommel. I told him that I wanted the presence of my lawyer. He said no, this was not allowed. I again asked him for a search warrant that specify what were to be searched but his answer again was that it was legal in the Netherlands to conduct a search without a search warrant. And since I presumed that he came in lieu of a search warrant, I asked him to specify what items the search team were after. He repeatedly said that they were looking for materials linked to murders in the Philippines.

The judge came and stayed for about 30 minutes to lend legality to the break-in, the raid, the search and the carting away of several boxes of documents, personal computers, other digital equipment (including a videocamera and two digital photo cameras) and various kinds of digital media (external hard disks, usb flash disks, diskettes, cds, dvds, video & audio tapes, etc.)

The search started as soon as the “judge” came and lasted the whole working day. A team of about 5 persons concentrated on examining and copying the hard disks of the computers. Several other teams simultaneously searched various parts of the living room, our study room and all the other rooms, including the storeroom downstairs and the storage cabinet in the balcony. One team brought in the materials to be taken away and put these into boxes. Another team had a computer to make some kind of listing, print out labels and label the boxes into which the materials were put. But I saw no itemization of all the materials that were being put into the boxes.

At one point after the “judge” had left, a member of the team read out one by one a series of questions from a few pages of paper. Apart from those about my name, address, date & place of birth, I refused to answer and instead demanded to have a lawyer. The questions were probably in Dutch but were read out in English translation and my nonanswers or refusal to answer were noted down in Dutch translation. I was asked but I refused to sign the paper containing the questions read out and what I said in in protest.

I asked for a detailed itemized listing of all the materials to be carted away but the team leader, one who introduced himself as as Mr. Bosboom from the Driebergen office of the National Police said that either I or my lawyer would be given the list. He gave me his calling card, which I gave to Michiel Pestman when we met at the Schoolplein Advocaten office in the evening after the search. As of today (Tuesday) the police has given neither my lawyer nor me any listing of the materials that the search team had carted away from my household.

It will take me a lot more time to go through all the parts of my household that were searched and make an inventory of the materials taken away by the search team and analyze how the materials are related to the so-called criminal case that is being brought against my husband. The “judge” did not tell me what items specifically the search team were after. Neither did anyone among the search team.

I can only say in a general way that voluminous documents, consisting of various kinds of communcations in hard copies and various kinds of digital media (computer hard disks, diskettes, cds, dvds, etc), could be misused to endanger the lives and safety of so many people in the Philippines with whom my husband is in touch, given the state of lawlessness among the state authorities, especially the executive branch that include the military and its intelligence services, and the general state of the politicization of judicial systems all over the world and especially in the United States under the rubric of Bush's “war on terror”.###

Download account in PDF format
 

Photos courtesy of:

Photographer Jan Beentjes

BONUS (Rewind) TRACKS

Dutch police arrested 93 at FietsKaravan event in Utrecht, May 2007

"It started out as a nice, fun bicycle ride on a warm, sunny day ended up with the forced dispersal of the caravan. We were arrested along with a hundred other protesters..."
 

Arrested and Detained in The Netherlands
by Jun Saturay
People's Artists Network (PAN)

My 16-year old daughter Hiyasmin and I joined a bicycle caravan against the G8 last May 5, 2007 (Freedom Day in the Netherlands).

I wanted to give out some information materials about ABN AMRO's role in the Rapu-rapu Island Mining Project in the Philippines. There were several policemen present when we started out, but they never told us that we were violating any law.

The caravan went on its way with more than a hundred bikers. On the street, the police escorts told us to keep on one side of the street. And we followed their orders. Everything went fine until the special police came in their dark blue uniforms and dark colored vans. Some of the agents were not in uniform. They wore rubber gloves as they grabbed people.

It started out as a nice, fun bicycle ride on a warm, sunny day; ended up with the forced dispersal of the caravan. We were arrested along with a hundred other protesters...

Despite my protests, Hiyasmin and I were handcuffed and brought to the courthouse where we we were detained for 6 hours. We left our bicycles chained together on the pavement. I was able to give my key to a friend who was able to elude arrest. He tried to claim the bicycles but the police still cut our locks and chains with a grinder. They also cut up my bicycle trailer. I also lost a bag of bicycle tools.

I asked that Hiyasmin and I be put in the same detention cell because she was a minor. But the police will not allow it. I asked to be allowed to call my wife so that she can come to the courthouse and look after Hiyasmin, but they would not allow it. I asked the policemen several times to be allowed to see and talk to my daughter... but they refused. I asked not to be photographed and treated like a criminal, but they took photographs and shoved me into a detention cell.
 

More photos at:

http://peoplesartnet.org/fietskaravan/photojournal.html

I come from the Philippines where a brutal regime rules by terrorizing people with the use of the police, the military, water cannons, truncheons, high-powered firearms, torture, summary executions, abductions, and death squads. The Philippine government was never been able to arrest or detain me. I barely escaped with my life by coming to the Netherlands.

But on Freedom Day in the Netherlands, my daughter and I were arrested, handcuffed, treated like criminals, and detained. Our personal properties were confiscated and damaged by the police.

I think the police, and whoever ordered the caravan to be dispersed, never really understood what Freedom Day was all about.

View photos and video of the incident on our website http://peoplesartnet.org/

Another kind of raid .... in the Philippines
 

CINEKATIPUNAN: SCREENING AGAINST ALL ODDS

After almost a year that Cinekatipunan has been in existence, a rumor is going around that Mag:net Café which is its home from 5-7PM, Mondays to Saturdays, has been raided. Raided by whom and why could not be answered each time a recipient of the rumor is asked. Or is it a possibility this is a premonition or maybe a warning that there could actually be a raid soon.

It was in early November last year, 4 days after Cinekatipunan opened when agents from the MTRCB paid Mag:net Katipunan a visit (is that a raid?) and threatened to stop the screening unless the establishment could produce a permit. Taken by surprise, organizers didn't know how to react. Filmmaker Kiri Dalena, project director of Cinekatipunan, explained lengthily to the agents the vision of the project and why they should be allowed to screen. The agents allowed the screening to proceed but only for the night and summoned the people behind the project to appear at the office of MTRCB within 3 days.

Organizers agreed to come to MTRCB the next day. It was a top-level concern. No less than the chairman and some members of the board were there to meet Cinekatipunan organizers. It turned out MTRCB didn't have an issue with Cinekatipunan' s objective to give venue and support to Philippine indie filmmaking and filmmakers. It's issue was Mag:net's practice then of charging gate entrance of 50 pesos which is not permited by law. Even if clarified that the 50 pesos (which is far too low compared to the 120 pesos we pay the movie house in the malls excluding parking fees) would go to the featured filmmaker(s) is still considered against the law. After deliberating, the board told organizers Cinekatipunan could continue provided it's free admission.
 

A sympathetic and encouraging board member suggested a pass on the hat could be allowed which eventually has been adopted by Mag:net and which has also been welcomed by the filmmakers. And so the screening went on and after almost a year in operation Cinekatipunan has screened hundreds of films mostly if not all are independent films and has resulted in the involvement and participation of numerous independent filmmakers from here and abroad. Many times full packed
and at times empty, the café has become a movie house daily except Sundays from 5-7PM occasionally extending beyond to accommodate talks and Q&As with the featured filmmakers. There is a joke, the waiters and personnel of Mag:net have already become film critics.

 

Cinekatipunan will soon be one-year old but it is threatened again for closure this time not by MTRCB but by some unseen forces whose motivation is unknown and is difficult to establish. It actually started when we received an angry anonymous call conveying to our staff that if by the end of August we didn't stop screening "ipapasara nila ang Mag:net Café". And then comes the rumor that it has actually happened. Could it be because Cinekatipunan has programmed one of its screening days to show advocacy films some of which are quiet political and incriminating? Or could it be because it allows screening of some films censored or banned somewhere else?

Or could the reason be because Cinekatipunan has recently preceded its daily programming with Jonas Burgos 30-second ad clips and has committed to run them till Jonas is found and till the government can address and do something to put a stop to the increasing cases of disappearances and summary killings of journalists and activists? These are just speculations on the part of the organizers and volunteers who absorb most of the recent unnecessary pressures. To Cinekatipunan' s detractors we say, you can raid us anytime but for as long as independent films are created by artists and activists we are committed to provide the needed venue Mondays to Saturdays all year round from 5-7PM, free admission. Our reason, our waiters might leave us.

Download Cinekatipunan September calendar>
http://www.magnet.com.ph/schedules/2007-09-Cine.JPG

Cinekatipunan synopses for the week>
http://www.magnet.com.ph/exhibition/cine/2007/09-03.htm

For more news
http://www.magnet.com.ph/
-- 

Home