Canadians and overseas Filipinos celebrate Professor Sison’s release from Dutch detention, but remain vigilant against further political persecution
13 September 2007
As overseas Filipinos and peace-loving Canadians, we applaud today’s release of Professor Jose Maria Sison’s from the Dutch detention centre in the Hague, Netherlands – a country where he lives as a political refugee. We congratulate, Professor Sison, his family, friends and supporters for their unwavering vigilance and struggle since his unjust arrest on August 28, 2007.
With mounting international pressure that saw actions, petition drives, and rallies at Dutch consulates and embassies all over the world, Professor Sison was released after the September 13 order of the District Court in the Hague. The court maintained that there was insufficient evidence against him on trumped-up charges of ordering the murder of Arturo Tabara and Romulo Kintanar in the Philippines.
We welcome this initial victory with great contentment.
Canadians and overseas Filipinos across the country and from different communities and organizations vigorously took to the streets and mobilized for Professor Sison’s immediate release and against his unjust arrest by Dutch authorities. Hundreds of petitions and statements of the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights were signed and handed out at various rallies and community educational forums as part of the international “Free Jose Maria Sison” campaign launched immediately after his arrest.
As a key figure in the national democratic movement in the Philippines and in the global anti-imperialist movement, Professor Sison has shared his ideas and analysis with millions of Filipinos and others around the world. He has given selflessly in service of the people.
It is for Professor Sison’s steadfast stand for the exploited and oppressed that the need for vigilance among Canadians and overseas Filipinos to remains. In connivance with the Philippine government of President Arroyo, the Dutch government maintains the trumped-up murder charges against him, and Professor Sison remains on the EU, United States and Canadian governments’ “foreign terrorist” lists since 2002.
The arrest of Professor Sison and the raids and harassment of progressive Filipinos in the Netherlands were part of escalating attempts of the Philippine, United States and Dutch governments to malign Professor Sison as a “terrorist” and a criminal.
Especially since the European Court of First Instance (ECFI) annulled the Council of the European Union (EU) decision blacklisting Professor Sison as a “terrorist” in the judgment issued in Luxembourg on July 11, 2007, the Philippine and Dutch governments have been hell-bent on persecuting Professor Sison. As expected, the two governments are using their political power and the existing fascist "anti-terrorism" laws and decisions that they have devised in the context of the US-led ‘war on terror’ in order to justify the political killings of nearly 900 people, the political persecution of progressive activists such as Sison, state terrorism and wars of aggression.
In order to maintain vigilance against the political and personal attacks against Professor Sison, the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) participating organizations in Canada is planning to consolidate and garner more support for Professor Sison by revisiting the “Laws, Labels, and Liberation: The Case of Jose Maria Sison” that it organized in May 2004. It will hold public meetings in Montreal and Toronto this coming Sept. 28th and 29th respectively.
As the global crisis of imperialism worsens and its attacks against oppressed peoples and nations heighten, we must take a stand in solidarity with the Filipino people in their struggle for national and social liberation. We urge all freedom- and peace-loving Canadians and overseas Filipinos to join and continue to support the legitimate struggle of Professor Sison against political persecution by calling for the Canadian government to remove him from its ‘foreign terrorist list’.
Justice for Jose Maria Sison!
Stop political persecution, harassment and repression in the Philippines!
Canada, stop supporting the militarist, repressive and corrupt US – Arroyo regime!
Long live people-to-people solidarity between Canadians and Filipinos!
STATEMENT OF:
• Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights
• National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada
• SIKLAB-Canada (Advance the Rights & Welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers and Their Families)
• Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance – National
• International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) participating organizations in Canada
• Vancouver Steering Committee for the “Stop the Killings in the Philippines Campaign) – B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Bus Riders Union, Filipino Nurses Support Group, Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance, Grassroots Women, Philippine Women Centre of B.C., SIKLAB-B.C.