Sison expulsion easier with death repeal - Palace

By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez

INQ7.net

Last updated 07:36pm (Mla time) 06/28/2006

(2ND UPDATE) WITH the abolition of the death penalty Malacañang sees better chances of persuading The Netherlands to deport exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Ma. Sison.

Executive Eduardo Ermita made the statement as communist guerrillas urged the government to respect the civil rights of their comrades targeted by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's revitalized two-year counter-insurgency campaign.

Citing conversations with an official of the Dutch embassy here, who he did not name, Ermita said the only real stumbling block to Sison’s expulsion from The Netherlands was the death penalty.

Although the Philippines has no extradition treaty with The Netherlands, Ermita said the government does have the option of asking the Dutch to expel Sison, who is facing several murder and rebellion charges here.

However, The Netherlands may not turn over persons to a country where they may face capital punishment.

Sison has been in exile since the late 1980s.

Ermita clarified that the government has yet to initiate talks with the Dutch government over Sison's expulsion.

The Palace official also called once again on local government officials down to the village level to play an active role in the campaign against communist rebels.

"We need the support of the local government units because they (rebels) thrive in the places controlled by our mayors and governors,” Ermita said at his weekly news briefing in Malacañang.

“Now, there will be no so-called controlled barangays (villages) or influenced barangays if these local executives can coordinate well with higher authorities especially the law enforcement and security agencies in order to have a successful counterinsurgency" campaign, he said.

When asked if local leaders in areas where rebels thrive could face sanctions, Ermita replied, "No. What we can do is to work with them because they know the pulse of their constituents."

Two weeks ago, Arroyo ordered a one-billion peso fund released and gave a two-year deadline for security forces to crush the 37-year old communist insurgency.

Asked if he believed the amount would be enough, Ermita said: "In the conduct of the campaign, it's very hard to say that any amount is enough.”

He stressed the need to adopt a "total approach" against the insurgency, which he said is really a war against poverty.

To date, he said, the New People’s Army (NPA) influence or control at least 2,000 barangays in 15 provinces.

Meanwhile, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) spokesman Gregorio Rosal said "suspected revolutionaries" are being secretly detained and tortured, while other members of the CPP and its 7,400-member NPA have been murdered by "death squads"

For his part, Luis Jalandoni, chairman of the National Democratic Front peace panel, called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and “all organizations which uphold human rights and international humanitarian law” to “hold the Arroyo regime accountable” for the alleged abduction by government troops of an NDF consultant and his son earlier this month.

Jalandoni accused the government of “crimes against humanity,” claiming it was responsible for “more than 180 enforced disappearances, more than 690 extra-judicial killings of unarmed civilians and frustrated killings of more than 200 civilian victims.”

The government is pouring fresh troops into the provinces around Manila to comply with Arroyo's orders to rid these areas of rebel influence within two years, but the military and police deny any role in a wave of killings of leftist figures in recent months.

"A clear pattern of impunity has emerged in the course of the Arroyo regime's 'all-out war' of terror against the armed revolution and democratic people's movement," Rosal said in a statement.

He urged the government to accord prisoner of war status to arrested CPP-NPA members and for it to respect "the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions and protocols on humanitarian conduct of war."

Rosal urged the government to release NDF consultant Rogelio Calubad and his son Gabriel, as well as Philip Limjoco who he described as an ex-NPA member, and suspected NPA leaders Roberto Marapo and Dionelo Borres.

Jalandoni said that, aside from violating human rights and immunity agreements between the NDF and government, the abduction of Calubad and his son also violated “the Geneva Conventions and Protocol II additional thereto of which the Government of the Republic of the Philippines has bound itself as a State party.”

The armed services have never acknowledged having the four in their custody.

With AFP