Intvw w/Philippine Revolutionary Jose Maria Sison

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Intvw w/Philippine Revolutionary Jose Maria Sison

Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit

[Monthly Review story about Sison's arrest in the Netherlands follows

the interview.]

sent by The Freedom Archives - Sep 10, 2007

Peace Reporter (Italy) - Aug 20, 2007

http://josemariasison.org/inps/PiovesanaJMS.htm

Interview With Prof. Jose Maria Sison

By Enrico Piovesana

Peace Reporter

Enrico Piovesana (EP): Prof. Sison, could you please tell us briefly

about your personal and political history, from your childhood up to

becoming an "International terrorist"?

Professor Jose Maria Sison (JMS): I am not a terrorist. I stand for

principles and actions that are for the benefit of the people

fighting for national liberation, democracy and socialism. I am a

Filipino patriot and a proletarian internationalist, not an

"international terrorist" by any suggestion. Communists are not

terrorists. European governments are wrong for following the Bush

line that communists, progressive mass leaders, national liberation

movements and anti-imperialist governments are terrorists. The

imperialist powers are engaged in fascisation on a global scale.

By my writings and political acts, I am well-known for opposing

policies and actions that harm or work against the interests of the

people. I stand up for the rights and interests of the people and

support their revolutionary struggles. I have strongly opposed

micro-terrorists like Al Qaida and Abu Sayyaf and macro-terrorists

like the US and other imperialist powers that kill large numbers of

people through the daily violence of exploitation, state terrorism

and wars of aggression.

You can get the biographical information about me from the book, At

Home in the World: Portrait of a Filipino Revolutionary. At any rate,

here are a few facts. I was born on February 8, 1939 in Cabugao,

Ilocos Sur, Philippines. I took my grade school in this town and high

school in Manila. I took my bachelor and masteral courses at the

University of the Philippines and I taught English literature and

political science subjects in two universities. I was active in the

anti-imperialist and anti-feudal mass movement. I became the chairman

of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines

from 1968 to 1977. I was arrested, tortured and detained by the

Marcos fascist dictatorship from 1977 to 1986.

I was released from military detention after the fall of Marcos in

1986 and rejoined the faculty of the University of the Philippines. I

went on a university lecture tour in the Asia-Pacific region and then

in Europe from late 1986 onwards. When my Philippine passport was

cancelled in 1988, I applied for political asylum in The Netherlands.

I am now the chief political consultant of the National Democratic

Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in peace negotiations with the

reactionary Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

Ironically, it is in connection with the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations

that the CPP, New People's Army NPA) and I have been blacklisted as

"terrorists" by the US and other foreign governments upon the

lobbying of the GRP in order to pressure the NDFP towards capitulation.

EP: How would you describe the nature of NPA struggle: history,

strength, spread, activities, social support, mid-term and long-term

goals?

JMS: The Communist Party of the Philippines describes the New

People's Army as the main weapon for protracted people's war and

seizure of political power along the line of the new democratic

revolution under the leadership of the working class in the concrete

conditions of the Philippines. The NPA was established on March 29,

1969, a few months after the reestablishment of the CPP in 1968. It

has carried out fighting, political, productive and cultural tasks

for more than 38 years. It is deeply and widely based among the

people, mainly the peasantry.

It has more than 120 guerrilla fronts. It operates in 70 of the 81

provinces of the Philippines, 800 out of 1500 Philippine

municipalities and in more than 10,000 out of the 42,000 Philippine

villages. It has been instrumental in the establishment and

development of mass organizations and organs of political power. It

has generated and supported social programs and mass campaigns for

the benefit of the people in mass education, land reform, production,

health, defense, cultural activities and settlement of disputes.

The goals announced by the NPA are to seize political power in order

to complete the new democratic revolution and establish a people's

republic and then to become the main component of state power and

defender of the people in socialist revolution and construction in

the Philippines.

EP: What's your reply to those who say that nowadays a Maoist

guerrilla fighting for a socialist state is anachronistic?

JMS: The NPA cannot be anachronistic by fighting for national

liberation and democracy against US imperialism and the local

exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords. It is the new

democratic force that is striving to defeat such anachronistic

monsters as imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism which

exploit and oppress the broad masses of the people.

By the time that the NPA succeeds in defeating these anachronistic

monsters, then the people shall have accumulated the strength

necessary for building socialism under conditions of an imperialism

much weakened by accelerated crisis under such policies as "free

market" globalization and global war of terror spearheaded by US

monopoly capitalism. The world capitalist system has a growing

tendency to implode because of the increased number of competing

imperialist powers and the growing resistance of the people of the

world.

EP: The CPP program states that the future socialist State will have

special relations with the People's Republic of China. Many people

say that NPA is even armed by China. Why do you still consider China

a revolutionary state, even if it has become a completely capitalist

country?

JMS: At the time that the CPP program was formulated in 1968, the

People's Republic of China was still a socialist state and was

practically the center of the world proletarian revolution through

the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. But since then, especially

after 1976, CPP documents and publications have been criticizing the

revisionists and capitalist restorationists that have prevailed over

the Marxist-Leninists in China. As you say, China has become

capitalist and is no longer a revolutionary state. I refer you to CPP

documents and publications criticizing and condemning "free market"

globalization in sharp contrast to China's conformity to this policy

pushed by the US and other imperialist powers.

EP: Could you explain what the 'Oplan Bantay Laya' is and its effects

on civilians and political activists?

JMS: Oplan Bantay Laya is a "national internal security plan"

patterned after Oplan Phoenix of the US in Vietnam during the late

1960s. It seeks to destroy the political infrastructure and the

guerrilla fronts of the armed revolutionary movement. It is

instigated by the US in the context of its policy of global war of

terror. The US has described the Philippines as the second front of

such global war. It has introduced thousands of US military troops in

the Philippines and increased military supplies to its Filipino

puppets to push them on a counterrevolutionary rampage in the name of

anti-terrorism.

Oplan Bantay Laya has brought about the extrajudicial killing, forced

disappearance and torture of more than a thousand progressive legal

activists, including leaders of progressive mass organizations,

journalists, lawyers, religious leaders and other activists who

advocate human rights, social justice and just peace. It has also

brought about the brutal displacement of more than one million people

mainly in the countryside, in addition to a previous level of two

million internal refugees. The forced displacement of the people is

calculated to divest them of their land and to deliver this to

foreign mining, agribusiness and recreation companies.

Oplan Bantay Laya aims to destroy the armed revolution and legal

opposition and to intimidate the people. But it has failed to destroy

a single guerrilla front of the NPA. It has only served to fuel the

flames of the armed revolution. The gross and systematic violations

of the human rights of the progressive legal activists have outraged

the Filipino people and the people of the world. The progressive

legal mass movement has risen up to a new level against the

escalating acts of violence against the people by the US and the

local reactionaries. Even international human rights organizations

and human rights agencies of the UN have pointed to the criminal

responsibility of the Filipino puppet rulers headed by Arroyo.

EP: The situation will get worse from now on with the new anti-terror

law: the Human Security Act enforced on July 15?

JMS: Indeed, the human rights situation will get worse with the

anti-terror-law, which is deceptively called Human Security Act of

2007. The definitions of "terrorism" and "conspiracy to commit

terrorism" are vague and overly broad. It becomes very easy for the

Arroyo regime to take punitive actions against any individual,, any

organization and any party in the opposition. The punitive actions

include limitless surveillance, warrantless arrests, indefinite

detention without bail, proscription as "terrorists" and seizure of

properties and financial assets.

EP: Do you think that under Arroyo's leadership, Philippines is going

backward to the Marcos dictatorship era?

JMS: In many respects and to a great extent, the Arroyo regime is

already very much on the fascist road of the Marcos dictatorship.

Especially with the HSA of 2007, the Arroyo regime has gotten a

license for martial rule without having to declare martial law and

comply with requirements set by the anti-fascist provisions of the

1987 constitution

EP: What is the role of US military in supporting Philippines troops?

Only training and logistical support or something more?

JMS: The role of the US military in supporting Philippine troops is

not limited to weapons training and logistical support. It is to

indoctrinate the puppet officers and troops and enhance their

subservience, mercenary character and puppetry to US political and

military plans in East Asia and the world at large, It is to gain

intelligence from the puppet forces against the Filipino people as

well as to provide intelligence to the puppet forces in order to

condition their thinking and operations. It is to lay anew and

develop the infrastructure for direct US military presence and

operations in the Philippines and for US military intervention and

aggression in Southeast Asia, East Asia and farther afield.

EP: Official figures put at 40 thousand the death toll of the 'People

War'. Do you confirm this number? Is it true that the conflict is now

in an escalating phase?

JMS: It is wrong for anyone to ascribe the death toll of 40,000 or

whatever number to the people's war .. We must make clear that this

number refers to the people killed by the military, police and

paramilitary forces of the reactionary government in the course of

anti-NPA campaigns of suppression as early as during the time of the

Marcos fascist dictatorship. Since after the fall of the Marcos

regime, the number would have significantly increased to 60,000 with

the count of victims in the brutal campaigns of anti-communist

military suppression under the regimes of Aquino, Ramos, Estrada and

Arroyo.

Being the army of the people, the NPA strictly directs its fire

against the military, police and paramilitary forces of the

oppressive regime. There is an estimate that since 1969 the NPA has

killed more than 30,000 enemy troops and wounded many more and the

reactionary military and police have killed around 10,000 Red

fighters and more than 50,000 civilians. These figures exclude the

casualties in the fighting between the reactionary armed forces and

the Moro liberation forces.

EP: What about the peace negotiations started in Brussels in 1995?

JMS: The peace negotiations between the National Democratic Front of

the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the

Philippines (GRP) have made some progress in the form of agreements

within the framework of The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992. The most

significant of the agreements is the Comprehensive Agreement on

Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, which is

the first item in the substantive agenda of the peace negotiations.

But under various pretexts, the GRP has blocked the further advance

of the peace negotiations by repeated attempts to require the NDFP to

capitulate and by repeated declarations of prolonged recesses,

suspension of talks and even the termination of the negotiations. The

peace negotiations become paralyzed every time the GRP demands the

surrender of the revolutionary forces and stops the negotiations as a

process for addressing the roots of the armed conflict and agreeing

on social, economic and political reforms for the benefit of the people.

EP: What do you think about the other Philippine armed conflict: the

one between goverment and Moro Islamic Liberation Front? And what is

your opinion about the Abu Sayyaf Group?

JMS: The Moro people have the right to national self-determination,

democracy, development and peaceful enjoyment of their ancestral

domain. They have the right to secede from an oppressive state and to

demand regional autonomy in a nonoppressive state. The Moro Islamic

Liberation Front (MILF) is waging a just revolutionary armed struggle

along the line of upholding, protecting and promoting the national

and democratic rights and interests of the Moro people.

The Abu Sayyaf is different . It was originally organized by the CIA

and Philippine military intelligence in 1991 in order to make trouble

on the flanks of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). But when

the MNLF capitulated to the GRP in 1996, the Abu Sayyaf appeared to

run out of control of the CIA and Philippine reactionary military.

Now, it is being used by the US as pretext for the continuing

presence of US military forces in Mindanao and the entire Philippines.

PEACE REPORTER

Via Meravigli, 12

20123 Milano, Italia

[For the writings of jose maria sison, go to http://josemariasison.org

follow the defense campaign, go to http://www.defendsison.be

For a chronology of the persecution and harassment of JMS over the

years before the arrest of August 28, 2007, see

http://josemariasison.org/inps/ChronoPersProfSison.htm ]

[see original at Monthly Review for numerous links to more info.-NYTr]

Monthly Review - Sep 6, 2007

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/pugh060907.html

Philippine Revolutionary Leader Arrested in the Netherlands

by Dave Pugh

Jose Maria Sison has been a leading figure of the Philippine national

democratic revolution for almost 40 years. He is one of the pioneers

who revived the anti-imperialist movement in the Philippines in the

early 1960s, and he was elected chairman of the Communist Party of the

Philippines in 1968 when it was refounded on the basis of

Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. For nine years, he was the most

prominent political prisoner of the U.S.-supported dictator, Ferdinand

Marcos. After living for nearly twenty years in the Netherlands as a

political refugee, Sison is in prison again.

On the morning of August 27, 2007, Sison was arrested in Utrecht, the

Netherlands, on trumped up murder charges. The Dutch police kicked

down doors and ransacked Sison's apartment. The Dutch police also

raided the houses of several staff members of the National Democratic

Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and confiscated computers and files in

an attempt to shut down the NDFP's international solidarity work.

Sison has been in the crosshairs of successive U.S. puppet Philippine

regimes since his release from prison in 1986 as a result of the

"people power" uprising that brought down the Marcos regime. While

Sison was on a university lecture tour in Europe in 1988, the

Philippine government of Corazon Aquino stripped him of his passport.

A year later, the military offered a one million peso bounty for his

"arrest, capture or neutralization." Sison has remained a political

refugee in the Netherlands since 1988 because of continued threats to

his life by the Philippine authorities. As recently as 2000, a special

unit was sent to the Netherlands to murder Sison.

In 1992, Sison was invited by the NDFP to be its Chief Political

Consultant in peace negotiations with the Philippine government. The

NDFP is composed of the CPP, the New People's Army (which has

established more than 120 guerilla fronts on all eleven major islands

of the archipelago), and 15 groups based among workers, peasants,

women, youth, the religious sector, the Muslim Moro people, and the

many indigenous groups in the Philippines. The NDFP's national

democratic program calls for the uprooting of imperialism, feudalism,

and bureaucrat capitalism in the Philippines, leading to the socialist

stage of the revolution.

Over the course of a decade, the NDFP has held peace talks with the

Philippine government. The two sides have signed ten bilateral

agreements, including the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human

Rights and International Humanitarian Law in 1998. The CARHRIHL

requires both sides in the armed conflict to refrain from acts of

terrorism against the civilian population and soldiers who are hors de

combat. However, the Philippine government has undermined the

agreement by objecting to setting up enforcement mechanisms.

More importantly, the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has

violated the CARHRIHL and international humanitarian law by

orchestrating the murder and disappearance of more than 1,000 civilian

political activists during the last six years. These activists have

included workers and peasants, priests and pastors, and members of the

Bayan Muna (People First) party that recently elected three

representatives to Congress in spite of massive voter fraud.

While the Philippine army sends out squads of motorcycle-riding masked

soldiers to assassinate those whose only crime is opposition to a

corrupt, brutal regime, the revolutionary forces strongly oppose

terrorist actions and terrorism as a strategy. The NDF, the CPP, and

the NPA recognize that they must gain and maintain the active

participation and support of the people in the revolution. They use

their limited weapons judiciously and precisely only against the

military and those guilty of serious offenses against the people.

Nevertheless, the U.S. and the European Union have listed the CPP and

the NPA as "terrorist organizations" and have tried to blacken the

reputation of Sison by designating him as a terrorist.

In response to a question on this issue at a press conference in 2002,

Sison replied, "Terrorism is usually associated with the assassination

of innocent civilians, the wanton destruction of property, the

maltreatment of captives and the like. These are precisely the kinds

of things that the New People's Army never does. The NPA is treating

the people humanely and is respecting their human rights. It abides

strictly by its own Rules of Discipline, and the organs of people power

follow the Guide for Establishing the People's Democratic Government,

which serves as the Constitution for the areas under NPA control."

The Dutch police claim that in 2003, Sison ordered the murders of two

ex-leaders of the CPP, Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara. At that

time, the New People's Army, based in the Philippines, announced that

Kintanar and Tabara were killed resisting arrest and were slated to be

tried by people's courts for serious crimes committed after they left

the CPP. Kintanar had been working for Philippine army intelligence,

and Tabara was charged with the murder of an elderly peasant leader.

The CPP publicly took credit for administering "revolutionary justice"

to Kintanar and Tabara. For over 20 years, the CPP has stated that

Sison is no longer involved in operational decisions and that he serves

the revolutionary movement in an advisory capacity in Europe.

Why Now?

Why has Sison come under attack now? Over the past year, the

Philippine government has been on the defensive for its human rights

violations. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN

Special Rapporteur for Human Rights have issued reports harshly

critical of the Philippine government and army. After hearings in the

spring of 2007, 48 U.S. Senators and Representatives sent a letter to

the Arroyo government expressing concern that U.S. military equipment

was being used to commit human rights abuses.

In July 2007 the Philippine Supreme Court dismissed a long list of

charges against Sison and 50 other progressives, including the murders

of Kintanar and Tabara, that spanned the period from the founding of

the CPP in 1968 to 2006. This legal defeat for the Philippine

government may have prompted it to request that the Dutch government

file the murder charges against Sison, which mean he will be tried in

the Netherlands instead of the Philippines.

The Netherlands has a long and notorious colonial past in Southeast

Asia (Indonesia) and South America (Surinam and the Dutch Antilles).

Today, it is the third largest trading partner and the second largest

investor in the Philippines. Dutch conglomerates such as Royal Dutch

Shell (oil), Unilever (consumer products), and Phillips (electronics)

are well entrenched. Their exploitation of the labor and natural

resources of the Philippines is administered by the Arroyo government

and guaranteed by U.S. military equipment and advisors.

The U.S. government was quick to respond to the Dutch police action.

American ambassador Kristie Kenney offered to extend support to the

Dutch government to prosecute Sison. While the U.S. seems to allowing

the Dutch government to take a lead role at this point, Sison could be

kidnapped by the CIA or U.S. Special Forces. According to the CPP in

the Philippines, the U.S. government has had standing plans to subject

Sison to extraordinary rendition and to imprison him in Guantanamo Bay

or a secret U.S. detention facility.

At present, Sison, 68, is being held in solitary confinement in the

Dutch National Penitentiary, which was used by the Nazis during World

War 2 to imprison and torture Dutch resistance fighters. He is being

denied warm clothing and medicines for a heart condition. However,

Sison is familiar with prison, and his voice will not silenced easily.

On August 30, a march on the Dutch embassy in Manila was attacked by

truncheon-wielding police, injuring dozens of people. In the last

week, demonstrations have been held at Dutch embassies, consulates, and

government offices in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Sydney, Taipei,

Vancouver, B.C., Montreal, New York City, and Los Angeles, with more

actions planned.

[Dave Pugh lives in San Francisco and works with Bayan USA.]

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