Alert: Filipino leader arrested

Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Prof. Jose Maria Sison, the chief political consultant for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, was arrested Aug. 27 in the Netherlands by Dutch police. He was charged with “multiple murders” that allegedly took place in the Philippines, even though Sison has been in exile in the Netherlands for 20 years. The Dutch authorities claim he ordered the murders in 2003. Sison will be tried in the Netherlands, not the Philippines.

Supporters of the struggle for the liberation of the Philippines immediately condemned the Dutch action as political repression. Bayan USA, for example, organized a protest at the Netherlands’ consulate in New York and other locations in the U.S. calling for Sison’s immediate release, saying that “behind the actions of the Dutch police is the Arroyo government.”

NYC, Aug. 29. WW photo: John Catalinotto

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was one of the first national leaders to join Washington in the so-called “war on terror,” has waged a persecution campaign against Sison.

Activists from anti-imperialist, anti-war and revolutionary socialist organizations joined the Aug. 29 protest in New York in solidarity with the Philippines revolutionary leader.

—Workers World New York bureau