Joma Sison downplays government's terrorist tag

Self-exiled communist leader Jose Maria Sison and his wife on Thursday shrugged off the government’s decision to include them in the list of so-called “terrorists.”

Sison, his wife Julieta, and the rest of the 19-member central committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines have been designated as terrorists by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC), which may result in the possible freezing of their assets by the government.

In a statement, Sison said that he and his spouse are “not at all bothered” by the designation.

“To start with, the list of names in the designation appears to be arbitrary, dubious and even contradictory or inconsistent with the various public and purportedly personal statements even of its own NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict) evil minions,” said Sison, who is in self-exile in The Netherlands.

“Moreover, it includes mostly publicly known political consultants of the NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines) negotiating panel in the peace negotiations with the Manila government who are all entitled to the protection of the GRP-NDFP Joint Agreement of Safety and Immunity Guarantees(JASIG) and other binding bilateral agreements.”

Absurd tag

Renato Reyes, secretary general of the leftist Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) also said Thursday that the "terrorist" tag  is absurd. How come terrorists engage the government in peace negotiations? 

“Doesn’t that make the designation absurd, a retaliatory act in the aftermath of the scuttled negotiations? And won’t this affect future peace talks as the government is now using terrorist designation against those engaged in the peace process?” Reyes added. 

“All of this was done without due process. It is clear that the anti-terror law is easily abused as seen from this kind of arbitrary designation.”

On the other hand, Sison hit back at ATC vice chairperson and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., who had told the Supreme Court about the organizations that are allegedly linked to the communist movement.

“I can only say that if there is such a thing as red-tagging, the master red-tagger is Jose Maria Sison. On our part, we are simply informing the public. This is, of course, what we would call now as ‘truth tagging,’” Esperon said during the oral arguments on the petitions against the anti-terror law on Wednesday.

“He has sunk to a lower level of idiocy by describing as red-tagging my simple enumeration of the 18 self-acknowledged component underground organizations of the NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines), which are entirely different and distinct from the perfectly legal Bayan and its federated legal member-organizations,” Sison said in reply.

Moreover, he said that he was “glad” that Esperon admitted the “malice of what he and his cohorts always do: red-tagging, to prepare the arrest and murder of social activists, trade unionists, peasant leaders, religious leaders, lawyers and other human rights defenders.”

The SC will continue on May 17 the oral arguments on the petitions against the Anti-Terrorism Act. —LBG, GMA News