DILG to ask Dutch gov’t for extradition of Joma Sison

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will seek a special arrangement with the Dutch government for the extradition of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison, its chief said on Thursday.

According to Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, the grounds for the grant of refugee status to Sison no longer exist and should be revoked because of the crimes he had allegedly committed.

"Ang isang kriminal ay hindi kailanman puwedeng ituring na political refugee. Ang isang mass murderer ay hindi puwedeng maging refugee. Buking ka na, Joma, kaya panagutan mo ang mga kasalanan mong pagpatay sa mga kapwa mo Pilipino,” Año said in a statement.

The DILG chief further criticized the Netherlands-based communist leader as "hallucinating" for supposedly saying that he was "absolutely protected" in his self-imposed exile in the Netherlands.

"Duwag ka, Joma. Now that you are in the last few years of your life, do something right for a change, own up to your sins against the Filipino people and face the charges against you and give justice to the victims of the Inopacan massacre, among many others," he said.

Sison has been residing in The Netherlands where he is seeking asylum as a political refugee since 1987.

He has insisted that he cannot be arrested because he is being recognized as a political refugee. Sison also mocked President Rodrigo Duterte, claiming that the Chief Executive was ignorant of international law over his threat to arrest Sison.

The CPP founder was ordered arrested by virtue of the warrant of arrest issued by Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 on August 28.

This was in relation to the 2006 discovery of a mass grave in Inopacan, Leyte that purportedly contained the bones of victims of the alleged purging by the New People's Army in the 1980s.

Philippine National Police chief Police General Oscar Albayalde has said the police, through the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime (PCTC), are already making representations with the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) for the issuance of a red notice for Sison's arrest.

Año said once the INTERPOL publishes a red notice against Sison, the latter will be a wanted man across the globe.

Año also bared that the European Union would extend assistance to the Philippine government for the arrest of the communist leader.

The military has promised that it will coordinate with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Justice regarding Sison's arrest.

Sison earlier scoffed at President Rodrigo Duterte for his "ignorance" of international law over his threat to arrest him with the help of the INTERPOL.

"INTERPOL cannot arrest me because I am a recognized political refugee," Sison said in a social media post.

"Duterte and his military nincompoops are just doing psywar about something that they do not know anything about. They merely expose their ignorance of international law by repeatedly yakking that I am subject to extradition by Interpol," Sison added. — RSJ, GMA News