COME HOME, JOMA. Members of various anti-communist organizations stage a picket rally outside the Netherlands Embassy in Makati City on Thursday (June 10, 2021). They want the Dutch government to stop coddling Communist Party of the Philippines founding chair Jose Maria Sison and his colleagues. (Contributed photo by Nolan Tiongco)
MANILA – Anti-communist groups on Thursday slammed anew on the continuous coddling of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair Jose Maria "Joma" Sison and his colleagues by the Netherlands government.
Members of Liga Independencia Pilipinas, League of Parents of the Philippines, Melchora Women's Party-list, Youth Power Against Destabilization and Terrorism, and Duterte Youth Party-list staged a picket rally in front of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands along Paseo de Roxas, Makati City, "for allowing Sison and his colleagues to freely plan their atrocities and violence in the Philippines."
"We see such action as a mockery of our country's political sovereignty. We demand the expulsion of Joma Sison and his terrorist leaders from the Netherlands," the groups said in a statement.
Bearing placards, they renewed their call to terminate Sison's asylum status.
"Your (Dutch) government has provided Joma and his cahoots of terrorist leaders safe sanctuary and a haven for him to perform such barbaric acts and continue to uphold terrorism in our country," they said.
The groups lamented that Sison has been controlling the CPP's armed wing, New People's Army (NPA), to keep doing atrocities even amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
"From Netherlands, he has waged his own remote-control war with his band of terrorists, the NPA rebels. Thousands of innocent lives have been sacrificed already and billions of properties have also been destroyed. Until when shall we continuously carry this inhumane war?" they said.
Sison should be held liable for the senseless attacks made by the NPA, particularly planting anti-personnel mines (APM) that kill innocent civilians, they added.
"We hold you also as culpable and much guilty as the CPP-NPA-NDF (National Democratic Front) and Joma Sison. You have tolerated all Joma's actions and terroristic war by allowing him to stay in your country. Aren’t you ashamed? Aren’t you conscientious about it? If you aren’t, we don’t know what kind of government you have! Is this your idea of Humanitarian State, allowing terrorists to stay and do terroristic wars using your country and even giving state pensions to the Sison!" the groups said.
Just last Sunday, football player Kieth Absalon, 21, and his 40-year-old cousin, Nolven, were killed by a roadside APM that exploded in Masbate while they were cycling.
The CPP-NPA admitted it planted the APM.
The international community adopted the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention prohibiting the acquisition, production, stockpiling, and use of the weapons.
More than 160 states are party to the Convention that went into effect in 1999.
APM is prohibited under international humanitarian law.
Even if it is “command detonated” as alleged CPP information officer Marco Valbuena always justifies, APM kills and can kill civilian non-combatants, according to authorities.
The groups said the Dutch government can help the Philippines attain justice for CPP-NPA-NDF victims by sending back Sison and his colleagues.
"Respect our Independence and nationhood. Expel them and let them face the wheels of justice of our country. It is only through this process we will fully achieve our sovereignty and statehood as a country," they said.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (PNA)
