Dutch government freezes assets of CPP, Joma

THE HAGUE — The assets of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its exiled founder Jose Ma. Sison have been frozen following a request from the United States, which had put the group on a "terrorist" blacklist, the Dutch government said Tuesday.

Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Bart Jochems said the Netherlands authorities have also asked European Union member-countries to freeze assets of the CPP and Sison.

At Malacañang, President Arroyo welcomed yesterday the Dutch government’s move, saying she hoped such act would "hasten the peace talks" that may lead the CPP-NPA to participate in the parliamentary struggle instead of resorting to violence.

The President said specifics of the next round of formal peace talks between the government and the CPP-NPA have not yet been decided. She was referring to the talks’ timetable and venue.

The Dutch Embassy in Manila said on Monday that the US government had sought the freeze on the CPP’s and Sison’s assets in the Netherlands after US authorities listed the party and its 12,000-strong armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), as "foreign terrorist organizations" on Aug. 9.

"On the basis of Security Council resolution 1373, the Netherlands decided to freeze the assets (of the CPP and Sison)," Jochems said.

Jochems told the Agence France Presse that the Hague is obliged under UN Security Council resolution 1373 to freeze assets and bank accounts used to transfer money to "terrorist" organizations.

Meanwhile, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Brig. Gen. Eduardo Purificacion said a freeze on the overseas assets of the CPP-NPA would adversely impact on the operations of the rebels, citing that a squeeze on funding leads to the weakening of any organization.

Purificacion said the military is updating its information on the properties of CPP-NPA, which may include legitimate businesses.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said Sison’s claims that the CPP-NPA has no assets "remains to be seen."

Ople said he hopes that the "back-channeling" may save the formal peace talks and reiterated that Sison could come back to the country.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said government intelligence agents had verified that the CPP-NPA and the National Democratic Front (NDF) have amassed funds from their extortion activities disguised as "revolutionary taxes."

Golez said intelligence reports have indicated that in 1999, the CPP-NPA accumulated P108 million, P93 million in 2000, P98 million in 2001 and P15 million so far this year.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an article published on Aug. 9 in the Federal Gazette, designated the CPP-NPA as terrorist organizations "as defined under US law." The Federal Gazette is the official US government gazette.

The US-led global anti-terror coalition had set up a legal basis for the European allies of the United States to stop financial support to communist organizations.

The US State Department’s designation makes it illegal for US citizens

to provide support to the CPP-NPA, which maintains ties with leftist groups in western countries.

It also mandates that financial institutions must block assets and make representatives of the CPP inadmissible to the US or subject to deportation.

Powell said the US government had decided on the designation of the CPP-NPA after an "exhaustive review" of the group’s violent activities. The CPP-NPA had killed, injured or kidnapped numerous Filipinos, including government officials, he said.

On the other hand, Sison rejected suggestions that he, the CPP, the NDF, the NPA and exiled communist leaders have assets overseas, saying they do "not maintain any amount of money in the US and elsewhere."

Sison, 64, who has lived in the Netherlands for more than a decade, condemned the Dutch government’s decision as a "violation of an individual’s rights."

More than 40,000 people are estimated to have died in a 33-year-old communist insurgency that aims to establish a Marxist state in the largely Catholic Philippines.

The CPP, founded by Sison in 1968, was legalized by Congress in 1992, but the NPA has continued its guerrilla activities in rural areas.

Members of the CPP and associated groups like the NDF have been living in the Netherlands for a number of years but have not been granted residency or protection.

Dutch officials said the government had tried to force them to return to the Philippines, but the courts forbade this.

"They are trying to push the Dutch government to harass all the Filipino citizens," Sison told Reuters..

Sison fled the Philippines in the late 1980s during the administration of then President Corazon Aquino, who had freed him and other political detainees after the first people power revolution in 1986. Sison spent nine years in prison.

The Dutch internal service has been watching Sison since 1992 and alleges he is still the leader of rebel forces responsible for hundreds of deaths in the Philippines every year. — With wire reports, Marichu Villanueva, Paolo Romero, Aurea Calica, Ding Cervantes, Benjie Villa