By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
Press Statement
27 January 2005
The Europe tour of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles and Presidential Chief of Staff Norberto Gonzales is useless and counterproductive, if the objective is to force my return to the Philippines.
Not even the Dutch government or the European Union can force my return to the Philippines because as a recognized political refugee I am protected by the Refugee Convention and by Article 3 and entirety of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
At the moment, I am the complainant before the proper courts in charges against the Dutch government and the European Council for violating my basic human rights in connection with the “terrorist” listing started by the US and followed by the Dutch government and the European Council.
It is also futile for Romulo, Deles and Gonzales to expect that the Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) can be pressured to fall for pacification and capitulation in the form of indefinite ceasefire, which they calculate would put aside the people’s demand for economic and political reforms.
The NDFP is ready to resume the formal talks as soon as the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) fulfills the following obligations:
1. It undertakes effective measures to counter or undo the US-instigated “terrorist” listing because it is violative of the principle of national sovereignty, the safety and immunity guarantees, the Hernandez political offense doctrine and the democratic rights which are carried in existing GRP-NDFP agreements.
2. It shows willingness to avail of the peace negotiations as a way for addressing the roots of the armed conflict and conforms to the framework of peace negotiations as laid down by The Hague Joint Declaration and elaborated on by the basic agreements on safety and immunity guarantees and on the formation, sequence and operationalization of the reciprocal working committees.
The delegation headed by Romulo is in no position to make people believe that the Philippines has become a safe country for Filipinos who struggle for national liberation and democracy against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords. Human rights violations, including the kidnapping, torture and murder of truly progressive activists, are rampant in the Philippines today.
No less than Norberto Gonzales has instigated psywar and physical attacks on the officers and members of progressive parties. In a recent meeting of the Arroyo cabinet on national security, he went so far as to propose and argue that I should be assassinated in order to solve the problems of the regime.
He has also collaborated with other rabidly anti-communist groups in the Philippines and abroad in carrying out a campaign of vilification against me and the revolutionary forces.
US-paid agents and clerico-fascists like Norberto Gonzales are today the most sneaky and yet the most notorious in supporting the US-initiated “terrorist” listing, trying to make Europe inhospitable to the NDFP negotiating panel and working for the termination of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. ###
