JOSE Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), was arrested in The Netherlands after a Dutch court judge issued a warrant for his arrest, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. The DFA confirmed reports aired on the TV network ABS-CBN that said Sison is in custody of the Dutch police. Sison is chief consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in the suspended peace talks between the communist rebels and the Philippine government. Sison was apprehended in The Hague, the Dutch capital, in connection with the alleged killings of "deep penetration agents" of the New People's Army in Leyte Province, according to the ABS-CBN website.
AJLPP Update 082802
August 29, 2007
The Manila Times
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Dutch arrest Joma
Manila---JOSE Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), was arrested in The Netherlands after a Dutch court judge
issued a warrant for his arrest, according to the Department of
Foreign Affairs.
The DFA confirmed reports aired on the TV network ABS-CBN that said
Sison is in custody of the Dutch police. Sison is chief consultant of
the National Democratic Front (NDF) in the suspended peace talks
between the communist rebels and the Philippine government.
Sison was apprehended in The Hague, the Dutch capital, in connection
with the alleged killings of "deep penetration agents" of the New
People's Army in Leyte Province, according to the ABS-CBN website.
Bayan Muna Party-List Rep. Satur Ocampo was also linked to the
killings in the province.
Earlier in March 2007, The Manila Times reported that Ocampo and
several communist leaders were charged with multiple counts of murder
before Judge Ephrem Abando of the Leyte Regional Trial Court.
The charges correspond to alleged killing of 15 of the 67 persons
whose skeletons were recovered in a mass grave in a remote village in
Inopacan, Leyte. Relatives of the slain members of the Armed Forces
claim they have identified the 15 skeletons.
Secretary to the Cabinet Ricardo Saludo refused to comment, saying
that Malacañang has yet to confirm the arrest.
Sison, who went into self-exile not long after the People Power
Revolution in 1986, is facing murder and rebellion charges in the
Philippines.
Malacañang had disclosed its intention to have Sison deported to the
country, but the absence of an extradition treaty between the
Philippines and The Netherlands has prevented the plan.
Since August 2002, Sison has been classified as a person supporting
terrorism by the government of the United States and the European
Union. But EU's second highest court recently ruled to delist him from
the EU terror list—which annulled the earlier decision.
Sison, now 68, was born on February 8, 1939, in Cabugao, Ilocus Sur.
He was a professor at the University of the Philippines and also a
writer. He founded the CPP in 1968. The following year, the CPP
organized its military wing, the New People's Army.
--With Francis Earl A. Cueto
Original: DUTCH ARRESTS JOMA SISON, NDF POLITICAL CONSULTANT