News and Analysis: Philippines: Communist Leader Sison Released from Dutch Prison (16 Sep 2007)

Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), was freed from a Dutch Prison on 13 September after being arrested on 28 August for his alleged ordering the murders of Arturo Tabara and Romulo Kintanar, former communist associates who broke away from the mainstream communist movement headed by Sison a decade ago. The Hague released the following statement on the 13^th concerning Sison’s release:

Today, the District Court of The Hague decided in camera [in chamber] that the accused Sison should be released from custody immediately.

The accused was arrested on 28 August 2007 and subsequently remanded in custody on the charges of participation of or incitement to the commission of the murders of Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Gabasan Tabara and/or Stephen Alamo Ong, as well as the attempted murders of Ruel Murakami and/or Edmundo Ruiz y Martinez.

The District Court established that these serious offences have been committed in the Philippines and relate to disagreements inside the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and that the decision to commit these murders was taken within the party structure of the CPP.

Furthermore, the Court recognised that there are many indications in the files which support the point of view that the accused is still playing a leading role in the Central Committee of the CPP as well as in the military branch of the CPP, the New People's Army (NPA).

Nevertheless, the Court reached the conclusion in camera that the files do not include sufficient indications that the accused, while living in the Netherlands, committed the offences he is charged with, in deliberate and close co-operation with the perpetrators in the Philippines. Neither do they contain sufficient concrete indications that the accused incited others to commit these serious offences.

Although the Dutch court decided that it did not have enough evidence to hold Sison in jail, there remains an ongoing investigation and the prosecution has not dropped the case. Sison is on the European Union’s list of people and organizations aiding terror, he has been refused political asylum, and all his assets are frozen. The Arroyo administration, which has been battling a violent communist insurgency since the late 1960’s was instrumental in attempting to build the case against Sison, and obviously, views his release of as a setback. On the heels of Sison’s arrest in Netherlands, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed a proclamation offering an amnesty to members of the CPP and its armed faction, The New People’s Army (NPA). The ongoing insurgency has cost the lives of upwards of 40,000 persons over the past 30 plus years.

(Comment) Although the separatist and militant Islamic movements in the Southern Philippines are given the most press outside of the country, it is the still very much alive communist insurgency that the Philippine government and military believe remains the number one security threat to the nation. Largely unreported in the global press are almost daily casualties in this persistent conflict. Besides the cost in human life -- civilian, government, and military, the insurgency is a constant reminder to the Arroyo administration that they have failed to address two key socio-economic issues: poverty and corruption. The recently announced amnesty program will likely have little impact if these two issues are not seriously addressed and affirmative action taken. Sison though having little direct say over the day-to-day operations of the communist movement in the Philippines is still very much the symbolic head, and if the Philippine government can pass enough information to the Dutch for a trial and conviction in the coming months, it will send a strong signal to those in country who are fighting that they are becoming increasingly isolated.  This isolation would contribute to President Arroyo’s objective of eliminating the communist insurgency prior to her run for reelection in the 2010 presidential race. On a broader perspective, the communist insurgency should have by now runs its course and the issues that fuel it been resolved as has been done in the rest of the Southeast Asian neighborhood – fighting communists in this part of the world in 2007 seems almost anachronistic. [slr]