Locsin: No enforcement of arrest warrant vs. Joma Sison in embassies

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison would not be arrested in any Philippine embassy abroad, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said on Wednesday.

During the Commission on Appointments' deliberation on the nomination of Ambassador to the Netherlands Jose Eduardo Enciso Malaya III, Senator Panfilo Lacson asked if the Netherlands-based communist leader would be nabbed should he step foot in the embassy.

"It is the policy of the United States Embassy not to execute or enforce the warrant of arrest inside the embassy premises," Lacson said.

"I wonder if we follow the same policy as regards embassies located abroad? Because as we know, Mr. Sison has outstanding warrants of arrest issued against his person," he added.

In response, Locsin said he believes the US has practical considerations on not enforcing warrants of arrest and that the same policy should be conducted in Philippine embassies.

"No, I will not enforce that warrant of arrest in an embassy abroad," he said.

"I think that if I were to enforce that and arrest him, considering the limited resources we have in all our embassies abroad, we would present an international spectacle that would invite laughter first and then outrage. I do not wish to embarrass my country," he added.

Lacson thanked the Foreign Affairs chief. He emphasized that he asked the question "as a matter of policy not only in the embassy in the Netherlands but also in other countries." 

Malaya's nomination as Ambassador to the Netherlands was later on approved by the CA.

In August 2019, a warrant of arrest against Sison and 30 others was issued by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32. It was connected 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.

Sison said the "false charge" was laughable because he is a political refugee. -- BAP, GMA News