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August 22, 2002, The Philippine Star, RP won't stop US from seeking Joma's expulsion,
The Philippines would not object if the United States sought the expulsion from the Netherlands of exiled communist leader Jose Ma. Sison for allegedly assassinating US military adviser Col. James Rowe in 1989 and several other US servicemen in the Philippines in the 1980s, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said yesterday.
In an unexplained sudden change of heart, Sison said communist guerrillas want to resume peace talks with the government despite their threats to attack US troops and economic interests in the country.
On Tuesday, he ruled out formal peace negotiations with the government while President Arroyo remained in power.
Malacañang was apparently unaware of the swift turn of Sison’s announcements yesterday because presidential adviser on the peace process Eduardo Ermita and Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye belittled his Tuesday statement suggesting that the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People's Army (NPA) had slammed the doors on peace talks.
Meanwhile, the military braced yesterday for a possible escalation of guerrilla attacks.
Gregorio Rosal, chief of the CPP information bureau, clarified yesterday that the NPA would only attack US troops to defend themselves.
Energy Secretary Vincent Perez said the country’s power facilities were properly secured amid fresh threats from the NPA that they would launch attacks targeting them.
In an interview with local television , Golez said he was not aware if the US government has since asked the Dutch government to have Sison expelled.
Golez said the Philippines was "comfortable either way" whether the Netherlands would send the exiles home or allow them to stay. Sison and some 30 other senior communist leaders are living in exile in the Netherlands.
On Aug. 9, the US placed the CPP, founded by Sison in December 1968, and its armed wing, the NPA, on its blacklist of "foreign terrorist organizations," freezing their funds and barring members from US territory.
Golez said if the US wanted to put them on trial for the Rowe and other murders, "it doesn’t concern me because (they would be) exercising their own laws, enforcing their own laws."
While Rowe was killed in Manila in 1989 and Philippine authorities have jailed two of his convicted guerrilla killers, Golez said the US could presumably invoke the fact that the victim was an American.
However, since "it happened here in the Philippines, so there would be maybe some legal complications there if they invoked that."
The US had also started legal proceedings against several Abu Sayyaf group leaders by indicting them for the kidnapping and killing of US nationals, notably missionary Martin Burnham.
Following the US blacklist, the Dutch and British governments pledged to scrutinize possible guerrilla funds in their respective banking systems and to block these assets.
Philippine government officials insist Sison is funding a 33-year-old Maoist rebellion through extortion in the country and through contributions of certain European parties and groups. The CPP maintains a12,000-strong NPA guerrilla army.
"We're only disturbed by the fact that all these acts of terrorism, all this violence that’s happening all over the country may lead to the doors of those people in the Netherlands," Golez said.
Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said the government was not bothered by suggestions from Sison that they would withdraw from the peace talks.
Reyes said the military campaign against the NPA would continue and that "the government has a clear strategy as set out by the President and we will pursue that strategy."
He said that while Sison had declared "that he will not talk peace until 2004 ... there is nothing we can do about that."
A Philippine military report said NPA rebels torched a parked passenger bus in the southern town of Banay-banay on Monday. No one was injured.
Local authorities suspect the bus owner could have rejected an extortion request, the report said.
About 90 Sison supporters mounted a picket outside the Dutch Embassy in Manila yesterday to protest at his treatment by the US and Dutch governments.
Manila has repeatedly asked The Hague to crack down on the Utrecht-based rebel leaders to prevent them from mounting a campaign of violence in the Philippines while at the same time seeking shelter from alleged political persecution here.
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