Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman
Communist Party of the Philippines
Founding Chairman
Communist Party of the Philippines
INTERVIEW with Prof. JOSE MARIA SISON
Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines
By ROSELLE
Liberation International
Liberation International
Jose Maria Sison (JMS): I thought
immediately that the arrest of these two NDFP consultants in the peace
negotiations is in violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity
Guarantees (JASIG). They are holders of the document of identification under
JASIG and are protected from surveillance, harassment and arrest.
RV: Is it true, as Alex Padilla, the
military and other Aquino government officials claim, that you are on opposite
sides with the Tiamzon couple regarding peace negotiations? That Tiamzon and Austria
JMS: The Tiamzon couple are in support of
the peace negotiations. That’s why they are consultants in the peace
negotiations. The claims of high officials and military officers of the
reactionary government that the Tiamzon couple are at odds with the CPP
founding chairman and the NDFP Negotiating Panel is a malicious intrigue. They
should read the official declarations of the CPP Central Committee supporting the
work of the NDFP Negotiating Panel and its consultants, including myself.
RV: How well do you know Benito Tiamzon and
Wilma Austria?
JMS: I knew them as excellent cadres of the
Manila-Rizal regional committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines Eastern
Visayas regional committee of the CPP in the mid-1970s onwards. He
was outstanding for his comprehensive ability in ideology, politics and
organization. Wilma was also outstanding. It is not surprising that they would
rise to the highest central positions in tne CPP.
RV: What do you know of Tiamzon’s
involvement and role in the CPP in the 1990s, in the Second Great Rectification
Movement?
JMS: Tiamzon played a leading role in the
Second Great Rectification Movement, which started in 1992. This was an
educational campaign that reaffirmed basic revolutionary principles and
resulted in the rectification of serious subjectivist and opportunist errors
and the revitalization and resurgence of the CPP, NPA, the mass base and the
people’s democratic government. The CPP cadres and members held on to the
general line of democratic revolution through protracted people’s war, while a
few rabid opponents became NGO racketeers, yellow labor dealers, bureaucrats of
the reactionary government and even spies and psywar experts of the military.
RV: What do you know of the Tiamzon
couple’s current roles in the CPP and their activities in the Visayas when they
were arrested?
JMS: My reliable source of information
regarding the current roles of the Tiamzons is the CPP official statement
published in Ang Bayan. They are described as senior leaders of the CPP paying
close attention to the plight and rehabilitation of the communities and
families victimized by the supertyphoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in the Visayas.
RV: What will be the impact of the arrest
of the Tiamzon couple on the CPP leadership? The military say that without
Tiamzon the CPP will suffer from a vacuum of leadership.
JMS: Leadership in the CPP is collective.
It does not depend on any single leader no matter how excellent. When I was
arrested in 1977, I was the CPP Central Committee chairman. But the armed
revolution continued, grew in strength and became a major factor in the
overthrow of Marcos despite his boast that he had finished off the CPP upon my
arrest.
Like me and Julie when we were arrested in 1977, Benny
Tiamzon and Wilma Austria will be replaced automatically by comrades. To use
basketball parlance, I say that the CPP has a deep bench. The Central Committee
is replenished and further strengthened by the increasing number of national
cadres as well as regional cadres from some 17 regions.
RV: What will be the impact on the New
People’s Army and the people’s war?
JMS: The NPA will become even more
determined to wage people’s war. The ground is fertile for people’s war because
of the system of oppression and exploitation that subjects the people to
intolerable suffering. The people desire the overthrow of the rotten system of
big compradors and landlords servile to US
RV: What was the status of the NDFP-GPH
peace negotiations before the arrest of the Tiamzon couple? What will now be
consequences to the peace negotiations?
JMS: Before the arrest of the Tiamzon
couple, the peace negotiations were paralyzed by the Aquino regime’s
noncompliance with and violations of existing agreements between the NDFP and
the Manila government. The imprisonment of
JASIG-protected consultants has had adverse consequences to the peace
negotiations.
RV: Do you have a message you would like to
convey to Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria, and their five companions?
JMS: Luis Jalandoni and the NDFP
Negotiating Panel are working hard to demand their release in accordance with
the JASIG. But the Aquino regime is extremely reactionary, narrow-minded and
short- sighted. I told Marcos in 1977: you have imprisoned me but the
revolutionary movement is free to grow in strength and advance. Imprisonment is
an opportunity to perform an important form of service to the people. By
manifesting their defiance, revolutionary prisoners can inspire the people to
fight more fiercely for their national and social liberation.
RV: What is your message to the Aquino
regime?
JMS: Respect the The Hague Joint
Declaration and the JASIG and release the NDFP peace consultants. Respect the
Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International
Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and release the political prisoners imprisoned on
trumped-up common crimes. Thus, there will be a sound basis for resuming the
peace negotiations.
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