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Monday, September 03, 2007
Communist rebels say they won't harm Dutch citizens
MANILA -- Communist rebels will not target Dutch citizens in the Philippines despite the arrest in the Netherlands of the founder of the Philippine communist party, a spokesman for the insurgents said Sunday.
The statement from Gregorio Rosal, spokesman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, followed reports that the Dutch foreign ministry had advised its citizens not to visit the Philippines following the arrest of Jose Maria Sison.
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The rebels said Dutch nationals are "definitely not targets of the New People's Army" or of protests against Sison's arrest.
Sison, 68, was arrested Tuesday in the Dutch town of Utrecht - where he has lived in self-exile for 20 years - on charges that he ordered the assassinations of two former communist leaders in Manila.
He has denied he ordered the killing of former NPA commander Romulo Kintanar in 2003 and of another rebel leader, Arturo Tabara, the following year.
Sison has said he stopped leading the party after his first arrest in 1977 on charges of rebellion and that he left the country in 1986, several months after his release from prison following the ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
He said he now acts only as a political consultant to rebel peace negotiators based in the Netherlands. The military claims he is still leading the party.
"We regard Dutch nationals as friends and not as enemies," Rosal said. "We extend our invitation for the Dutch people to visit the country, see the oppression and suffering of the Filipino people and unite with them in their resistance."
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has hailed the Dutch police action.
Philippine justice department and security officials have said they helped relatives of Kintanar and Tabara bring the case against Sison, and assisted Dutch prosecutors in looking for witnesses.
Rosal said the NPA offensives would continue nationwide.
Following a hearing Friday in The Hague, a Dutch court ordered Sison held for at least two more weeks so prosecutors can investigate the allegations, his lawyer, Michiel Pestman, said.
"The judge thinks there is enough evidence to hold him," Pestman said. "I think that's ludicrous." Sison was being held in solitary confinement, Pestman added. (AP)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Manila. (September 3, 2007 issue)
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