Dutch government restores Joma’s benefits

Dutch authorities have restored the social, health and insurance benefits of Jose Ma. Sison, but the self-exiled communist leader has rejected the goodwill.

Sison said he would rather "borrow money from friends to survive" than accept the "false restoration" of his benefits "within the framework" of the anti-terrorist sanctions of the Netherlands.

"I hope that such helping friends will not likewise be subjected to witch-hunt as terrorists in these times of creeping fascism which masquerades as anti-terrorism," he said.

However, Sison said the Dutch government has "glaringly omitted" housing accommodation among the benefits to be given back to him while he and his family are in the Netherlands.

"They have also made no mention of the money frozen in (my) bank account and the fact that my family has fallen into arrears with regard to financial obligations for goods and services delivered to us since July 2002," he said.

Sison said Dutch officials are trying "to trap me within the obnoxious framework of anti-terrorist sanctions" so he would collaborate in his own "criminalization and defamation" as a terrorist.

"The restoration of my benefits should be within the proper legal framework of respecting my right to the presumption of innocence until otherwise proven in a court of law," he said.

Sison said he would just allow himself to be labeled a "terrorist" if he accepts the offer of the Dutch government to restore his health and other benefits.

"Under the conditions being laid down for the restoration of (my) benefits, (I) would be required to report to Dutch officials once a week, instead of the previous arrangement of only once a month," he said.

Sison said the Netherlands has adopted the anti-terrorist sanctions being used against him as part of the US-led war against global terrorism.

"(The Dutch) anti-terrorist law is a hypocritical piece of paper," he said. "It takes away from me the benefits for bare subsistence from the state welfare agency."

Sison is chief consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) which has been negotiating peace with the government. –Benjie Villa, Aurea Calica