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August 22, 2002, The Philippine Star, RP won't stop US from seeking Joma's expulsion,
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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.
"We're willing to talk" -- Sison
In an interview with Reuters, Sison, who has lived in the Netherlands for 15 years, said the insurgency would continue until the Philippine government agreed to resume peace talks suspended last year.
Mrs. Arroyo suspended peace talks in June 2001 after the NPA murdered two lawmakers.
The US move clamping down on the overseas assets of Sison and the CPP raised concerns about the likelihood of talks with the NDF.
"Contrary to this false charge of terrorism, the NDF and the revolutionary forces it represents are willing to support the resumption of talks," Sison, 63, said from his office in the town of Utrecht, just outside Amsterdam.
Mrs. Arroyo is one of the staunchest supporters in Asia of the US-declared war on terrorism. The six-month joint RP-US Balikatan 02-1 anti-terror military exercise aimed at breaking the Abu Sayyaf ended in July. The group has been linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.
On Saturday, NPA guerrillas warned that they would attack American troops and business interests in the country if the US forces joined in the local military’s fight against them.
"It is the objective of the US to let the war flare up so that they can introduce more troops ... It is the objective of the US to force the rebels to surrender," the slightly built, bespectacled Sison said.
He said the responsibility for resuming peace talks lay with the Philippine government.
"So far as the Manila government endorses the position of the United States, the government is violating earlier agreements," said Sison. An estimated 40,000 people have been killed during the communist insurgency, one of the longest-running in the world.
Sison denies "any contact with revolutionary forces in the field" and says he is the NDF’s chief political adviser.
"As a political scientist and one who has good background knowledge of the struggle, the struggle will continue... With regards to the US blacklisting of the CPP and the NPA as a terrorist organization, this is a problem but not an insurmountable problem," Sison said.
Meanwhile, presidential adviser Ermita said it was former priest Luis Jalandoni who speaks on behalf of their principals and not Sison.
Ermita and Press Secretary Bunye reiterated that the government's peace talks with the communist guerrillas remain in "active mode" and that former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello, head of the five-member government peace panel, was ready to submit a draft peace pact for study by Mrs. Arroyo and the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security.
"As of now, whatever happens, the government is ready, and its doors are open so that we can achieve a political settlement. Whatever, what we should look for is for the development in the coming days," Ermita said.
He said the government was conducting its "back-channel" talks not only with the communist rebels but also with "third parties" such as the Dutch and Norwegian governments.
In an interview with Reuters, Sison, who has lived in the Netherlands for 15 years, said the insurgency would continue until the Philippine government agreed to resume peace talks suspended last year.
Mrs. Arroyo suspended peace talks in June 2001 after the NPA murdered two lawmakers.
The US move clamping down on the overseas assets of Sison and the CPP raised concerns about the likelihood of talks with the NDF.
"Contrary to this false charge of terrorism, the NDF and the revolutionary forces it represents are willing to support the resumption of talks," Sison, 63, said from his office in the town of Utrecht, just outside Amsterdam.
Mrs. Arroyo is one of the staunchest supporters in Asia of the US-declared war on terrorism. The six-month joint RP-US Balikatan 02-1 anti-terror military exercise aimed at breaking the Abu Sayyaf ended in July. The group has been linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.
On Saturday, NPA guerrillas warned that they would attack American troops and business interests in the country if the US forces joined in the local military’s fight against them.
"It is the objective of the US to let the war flare up so that they can introduce more troops ... It is the objective of the US to force the rebels to surrender," the slightly built, bespectacled Sison said.
He said the responsibility for resuming peace talks lay with the Philippine government.
"So far as the Manila government endorses the position of the United States, the government is violating earlier agreements," said Sison. An estimated 40,000 people have been killed during the communist insurgency, one of the longest-running in the world.
Sison denies "any contact with revolutionary forces in the field" and says he is the NDF’s chief political adviser.
"As a political scientist and one who has good background knowledge of the struggle, the struggle will continue... With regards to the US blacklisting of the CPP and the NPA as a terrorist organization, this is a problem but not an insurmountable problem," Sison said.
Meanwhile, presidential adviser Ermita said it was former priest Luis Jalandoni who speaks on behalf of their principals and not Sison.
Ermita and Press Secretary Bunye reiterated that the government's peace talks with the communist guerrillas remain in "active mode" and that former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello, head of the five-member government peace panel, was ready to submit a draft peace pact for study by Mrs. Arroyo and the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security.
"As of now, whatever happens, the government is ready, and its doors are open so that we can achieve a political settlement. Whatever, what we should look for is for the development in the coming days," Ermita said.
He said the government was conducting its "back-channel" talks not only with the communist rebels but also with "third parties" such as the Dutch and Norwegian governments.
GMA goes to Nueva Ecija
Police arrested seven suspected communist guerrillas yesterday in barangay Bagong Silang, Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, where the President hastily flew to stress her administration’s intensified campaign against insurgency and crime.
Police said they seized six rifles, rifle grenades, ammunition and subversive documents in a hut in the farming barangay of Bagong Silang, where they cornered the men while most were asleep.
"I will continue to journey to any part of the country to deliver the message that criminals have no place to hide," Mrs. Arroyo said while presenting the arrested men to journalists at the town hall in Cabiao.
She thanked villagers who tipped off police on the rebel presence and encouraged Filipinos to help the government solve a 33-year Marxist insurgency and widespread crime.
On Monday, Mrs. Arroyo ordered stepped-up security at power plants across the Philippines after Sison called on the 12,000-member NPA to mount renewed attacks on all fronts against the government, including sabotage aimed at "economic disruption."
The military last weekend intercepted an NPA unit sent to hit the Pagbilao plant southeast of Manila.
The Southern Luzon region hosts 15 power plants with a combined capacity of 6,543 megawatts, half the country’s installed capacity, the government said. --- With Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez, Benjie Villa, Artemio Dumlao, Charlie Lagasca, Donnabelle Gatdula
Police arrested seven suspected communist guerrillas yesterday in barangay Bagong Silang, Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, where the President hastily flew to stress her administration’s intensified campaign against insurgency and crime.
Police said they seized six rifles, rifle grenades, ammunition and subversive documents in a hut in the farming barangay of Bagong Silang, where they cornered the men while most were asleep.
"I will continue to journey to any part of the country to deliver the message that criminals have no place to hide," Mrs. Arroyo said while presenting the arrested men to journalists at the town hall in Cabiao.
She thanked villagers who tipped off police on the rebel presence and encouraged Filipinos to help the government solve a 33-year Marxist insurgency and widespread crime.
On Monday, Mrs. Arroyo ordered stepped-up security at power plants across the Philippines after Sison called on the 12,000-member NPA to mount renewed attacks on all fronts against the government, including sabotage aimed at "economic disruption."
The military last weekend intercepted an NPA unit sent to hit the Pagbilao plant southeast of Manila.
The Southern Luzon region hosts 15 power plants with a combined capacity of 6,543 megawatts, half the country’s installed capacity, the government said. --- With Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez, Benjie Villa, Artemio Dumlao, Charlie Lagasca, Donnabelle Gatdula
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