Lend a hand to bring Joma home, Dutch embassy urged

FILE: TAKE ACTION. Anti-communist group League of Parents of the Philippines (LPP) stages their 13th protest in front of the Dutch Embassy on Tuesday. The group’s members said they are not satisfied with the outcome of their meeting with Dutch embassy representatives as they cited that the embassy can lend a hand in their call to bring CPP founding chair Jose Maria Sison back home. (Contributed photo via PNA)

MANILA — Dissatisfied with the outcome of their meeting with representatives from the Dutch Embassy on their call to bring back Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison to the Philippines, anti-communist group League of Parents of the Philippines (LPP) on Tuesday protested anew in front of the embassy’s office in Makati City.

LPP spokesperson Remy Rosadio said the group believes the embassy “has the capacity to help revoke the asylum privilege” of Sison, who enjoys political asylum privilege in the Netherlands.

“To be honest with it, the LPP is not satisfied with your answer (that) ‘our hands are tied’ on the issue of sending back Joma Sison in the Philippines,” she said.

“You are representatives of one of the most democratic countries in the world and you can’t do anything about terrorist Joma Sison. Has the Dutch government been blinded by Joma’s rhetorical lines of just being a simple National Democratic Front (NDF) consultant?

“.

Last December 5, members of the LPP together with Dutch Embassy Counselor and Deputy Head of Mission Pieter Terpstra, Internal Affairs Department Head Peter Trimp, and Senior Political Officer Jaymie Ann Reyes held an exploratory meeting in the Dutch officials’ office in Paseo de Roxas, Makati to discuss the matter.

In an interview, alias Ka Dario, also a member of the anti-communist group, said they are “starting to believe that the embassy has sympathies toward Sison”.

“Nag-usap kami at pilit nilang sinasabi na tali ang kanilang kamay sa usapang pagpapauwi sa teroristang si Joma . Tingin namin sila ay natatakot o may lihim na pagsuporta, ang Dutch, kay Joma (We talked and they kept on telling that their hands are tired on the [extradition of Joma]. We think that they are afraid or that the Dutch are actually supporting Joma),” he said on Tuesday.

He added that it would be a significant move if the embassy decides to help the Philippines and work out the case filed against Sison, who has been staying in The Netherlands since 1992.

“[Magiging] isang makasaysayang solusyon ang desisyon nila na pabalikin si Joma, sila po ay may malawak na kapangyarihan upang maipabalik si Joma sa bansa at harapin ang kanyang mga kasalanan sa taumbayan (It will be a historical solution if they decide to help bring Joma here, their powers stretches wide, they can make Joma return and face his crime against the people),” he added.

Rosadio’s group has been staging protests in front of the embassy since April this year.

The group staged their 13th picket rally in front of the embassy on Tuesday.

Rosadio earlier said they will “continue to run their protests in front of the Dutch Embassy’s office until appropriate actions are performed”.

On August 28, Presiding Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina of the Regional Trial Court Branch 32 in Manila, issued a warrant of arrest against Sison with aliases Joma, Armando Guerrero, Armando Liwanag, and his wife Juliet, former National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace negotiator and 36 others over the mass execution in Inopacan, Leyte.

Charges were filed in 2006 after the skeletal remains of 67 victims were exhumed from shallow graves in Subang Daku village, Inopacan town, Leyte on August 28, 2006.

Accounts of former rebels and victims’ relatives estimated that the massacre, dubbed by the CPP’s New People’s Army (NPA) as the Oplan Venereal Disease have claimed the lives of 300 residents in Leyte province. They were summarily executed by communist rebels on the suspicion that they have links with the military.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.