Group slams Dutch gov’t for hitting Joma

Supporters of self-exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Ma. Sison criticized Dutch authorities for announcing it was a "mistake" to have extended benefits to the Filipino communist leader as a political refugee.

The Committee to Defend Filipino Progressives in Europe (Committee-Defend) also accused the Dutch government of "seeking to cover up its violations" of Sison’s "right to basic necessities."

The group said Sison, being the CPP founding chairman, should be "classified as an asylum-seeker."

Sison, with his wife Juliet de Lima and youngest son Jasm, has been living in self-exile in Utrecht, the Netherlands since 1987, seeking political asylum on fears they are being politically persecuted in the Philippines.

The Committee-Defend said the Dutch Council of State, the Netherlands’ highest administrative court, declared Sison as a "recognized political refugee."

They said the Dutch Ministry of Justice even declared that Sison "has well-grounded reasons to fear persecution in the Philippines and thus must be recognized as a refugee."

The status supposedly protected the rebel leader from being shipped back to the Philippines "or to any other country where his life or freedom is threatened."

In 1997, Dutch authorities began extending to Sison and his family monthly allowances for their subsistence, and provided him as well with social, medical and housing benefits, even as he was prevented from taking any job anywhere in Europe.

But in August last year, the US included the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA) in the list of "foreign terrorist organizations."

This was followed in October by the 15-nation European Union (EU) to consider Sison and the CPP-NPA as "terrorist threats," which prompted the Netherlands, an EU member, to revoke the political status and suspend all the privileges to Sison.

Sison is now contesting the "terrorist" tag on him before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

Late last May, Committee-Defend said that the rebel leader was further told by the Dutch Central Organ for the Reception of Asylum-Seekers to leave the Netherlands.

Sison was further instructed to vacate immediately the Dutch-funded apartment in Utrecht where he and his family have been living in.

The group said the "maltreatment" of Sison by the Dutch government was in violation of the United Nations’ Security Council Resolution 1452, which was adopted on Dec. 20, last year.

The resolution guarantees the protection of suspected "terrorists" from being deprived of money and other resources for their basis needs, said the group.

"Prof. Sison’s right to life. is being attacked and violated by the Dutch national authorities," Committee-Defend further stated.

Because of this, Sison said that he is now also set to file a complaint against the Netherlands before the European Court of Human Rights.

The CPP-NPA has been waging a 34-year armed rebellion in the country to establish a socialist Philippine state.

Peace talks between Malacañang and the communist movement’s underground political umbrella, the National Democratic Front (NDF), collapsed last February when the government asked rebel negotiators to sign President Arroyo’s so-called "final peace agreement."

The NDF panel also then demanded the lifting of the "terrorist" label on Sison and the CPP-NPA, which was, however, in turn rejected by the government.

Sison also acts as the "chief political consultant" of the NDF’s peace panel.