Sison claims govt agents tried to kill him

Sison claims govt agents tried to kill him

By LOUI GALICIA
ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

Jose Ma. Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). has alleged that elements of the Philippine government tried to assassinate him twice purportedly with the involvement of the slain ex-New People's Army (NPA) chief.

After the May 20 hearing by the District Court in The Hague, Sison informed ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau that the new evidences presented against him on his alleged involvement in the murders of erstwhile allies, Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara, in fact showed that "hit men" tried to kill him in 1999 and 2000.

The Dutch court was hearing Sison's appeal against the motion of the Dutch Public Prosecutors Office to extend until December its investigation on the allegations against the CPP founding chair.

"May mga findings na sapilitan nililitaw ng prosecution tungkol sa ibang sinuspek, ibang chinarge dati ng Quezon City police at mismong widow ni Kintanar sa pagpatay kay Kintanar," Sison said.

Sison said the new evidences are exculpatory and should exonerate him because Kintanar's wife, Joy, directly accused a certain Edwin Garcia in the murder of her husband.

"Pinakamahalaga, may findings tungkol sa assassination attempt sa akin. Pero I cannot elaborate because my lawyer wants to present those findings first within the Netherlands," Sison said.

But Sison said that the most significant of the new evidences were testimonies showing that there were indeed attempts to kill him, which he had already known since 2001.

"Ano ‘yan noong early 2001, nag-complain ako d’yan. Ang nanulay ‘yong lawyer ng NDF [National Democratic Front] na si Bernard Tamlo. Nag-complain kami sa police tapos si Col. Berroya na naging general eh pumunta rito kasama ng GRP [Government of the Republic of the Philippines] negotiating panel para tulungan ako sa pag-presenta ng mga information tungkol sa assassination attempts," Sison explained.

Sison is also the chief political consultant of the NDF in suspended peace talks with the Philippine government.

"Merong assassination attempt na kinabilangan ni Romulo Kintanar. There are findings tungkol diyan na mismong Dutch police investigators ang nakatuklas," added Sison.

Sison said that findings reveal that Kintanar himself came to the Netherlands as part of an assassination team but failed.

ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau could not publish the story then at the request of Sison's lawyer Michiel Pestman who requested for an embargo of the news because his team was planning to file a motion in court and that an article on the assassination attempt was going to come out first in a Dutch newspaper.

On May 30, the Dutch newspaper NRC next published a two-page article on the two assassination attempts on Sison.

The article by Folkert Jensma implied that the Philippine government ordered Sison to be killed twice.

The headline reads "Assassination by hired killers failed twice. The Philippine government tried to get rid of Communist leader Sison in Utrecht."

Jensma then detailed how a "hit team" went to Amsterdam in October 1999 in order to kill Sison and after a few months, a second team arrived with the same mission but failed.

"One time against the wrong person. Another time they got afraid and withdrew because Sison was walking, holding a child. Their rented car was also broken into - luggage gone. They gave a notification of this to the local police because of the insurance," wrote Jensma in the article.

The article named a certain Jose Ramos as one of the hit men who gave the details in a testimony during an interrogation conducted in February in the Philippines.

The CPP has claimed responsibility for the killing of Kintanar in a Quezon City restaurant in 2003 while Tabara was gunned down in 2004 outside a mall also in Quezon City.

Kintanar and Tabara were former top leaders of the CPP and NPA. Kintanar was the chief of staff of the NPA in the 1980’s while Tabara was the former chief of the CPP in the Visayas.

Both were later tagged by the CPP as "renegades" and "military agents."

Kintanar’s widow had admitted that she, with Tabara’s widow, had filed a case that led to Sison’s arrest and detention last year by Dutch police on alleged involvement in the killings of the two former top CPP officials.

Sison was later ordered released by a Dutch court.

SOURCE: WWW.ABS-CBNNEWS.COM

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=120203

Here is the link to the unofficial translation of the article by Folkert Jensma published in Dutch newspaper NRC that Sison sent to ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau:

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/topofthehour.aspx?StoryId=120190