By Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines NDFP Chief Political Consultant Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle 19 September 2007
Dear Comrades and Friends,
Warmest greetings of solidarity!
I am deeply pleased and thankful to all of you for holding this discussion meeting in order to focus on my case, reaffirm your
solidarity, rejoice in my temporary release from prison and prepare for the struggle ahead.
I am very happy to be free from 17 days of solitary confinement in a cell 2.5 meters wide, 3.5 meters long and 3.5 meters high and from 7 days of intensive interrogation of 5 to 6 hours daily under overheated lamps above my head. The Rechtbank of The Hague has found no sufficient evidence for my further pre-trial detention.
For my release, I am very grateful both to my lawyers for their competence in the legal struggle and to the parties, mass organizations, personages and the broad masses of the people in Germany and many other countries for their militancy in the political struggle to defend my rights and demand my freedom.
The physical constraints and psychological torture that I had to suffer in the Dutch Scheveningen version of Guantanamo reminded me of the same painful experience which I had endured under the Marcos fascist dictatorship.
But the pain in this latest ordeal is made more acute by the fact that I have absolutely nothing to do with the false and politically motivated charge of inciting two incidents resulting in the killing of certain military assets of the Arroyo regime named Kintanar and Tabara. As a matter of fact, I have nothing to do with these incidents. Thus, there can be no direct evidence and no sufficient evidence against me.
The publications of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People's Army have repeatedly explained that the NPA teams assigned to arrest the aforesaid individuals for certain criminal offenses upon the order of the people's court had to give them battle because they were armed and dangerous and resisted arrest.
No less than the prosecution office of the justice department of the Manila government has categorized the Kintanar and Tabara incidents, not as acts of murder, but specific acts of rebellion in the charge of rebellion against me and 50 others in the Philippines. The Philippine Supreme Court nullified on 2 July 2007 this charge of rebellion, including such specifications as the Kintanar and Tabara incidents and the supposed evidence for these.
Nevertheless, the sword of Damocles still hangs over my head. The Dutch prosecution office has filed an appeal before the Court of Appeals to have me put back in pre-trial detention or solitary confinement. Right now, according to news reports, six officials of the Dutch ministry of justice and national police are in Manila to consult with their Philippine counterparts.
I face tremendous odds. There are two imperialist powers and one puppet government interested in destroying me physically and politically. You are already aware that most of the testimonies against me in the charge of inciting murder were produced in the US embassy and the rest in the Dutch embassy and the former US Clark Air Base, now administered by the Manila government. There is widespread concern that the charge of inciting murder is merely the pretext for conducting raids and fishing for the evidence to make a charge of terrorism.
It is therefore necessary for all of us to remain vigilant and militant and to persevere in political struggle in order to defend the democratic rights not only of myself but also many others like the chairperson and members of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, the consultants and staffers whose office and homes have already been raided. We must strive to stop the escalating fascist acts of persecution against those who advocate and fight for national liberation and the socialist future.
All efforts must be exerted to stop the baseless charge of inciting murder against me as well as the scheme to trump up the charge of terrorism against me and other Filipinos who have worked so hard to uphold, defend and advance the cause of national freedom, democracy, social justice, development and a just peace in the Philippines. We hope that the struggle to defend the rights of persecuted Filipinos contributes to the advance of the people's struggle the world over for national liberation, democracy and socialism against imperialism and all reaction.###
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