Sison has repeatedly denied allegations that he had a hand in the killings of Kintanar and Tabara. The CPP-NPA leadership in the Philippines owned up to both killings, citing what it described as Kintanar and Tabara’s “crimes against the revolution.” He has in a statement described the Dutch Court of Appeals decision on his case as “a triumph of justice.”

He is optimistic that the charges against him in connection with the Kintanar-Tabara deaths will eventually dismissed.

“The charge cannot prosper because I have nothing to do with the deaths of the military and police agents Kintanar and Tabara as well as with the independent judicial process of the People’s Court in the Philippines,” Sison told Bulatlat. “Therefore there can never be any direct and sufficient evidence against me. Moreover the Kintanar and Tabara incidents are acts of rebellion according to the Philippine prosecution and acts of revolution according to the revolutionary forces.”

The killings of Kintanar and Tabara are included in the rebellion case filed by the Department of Justice (DoJ) last year against Sison and more than 50 other personalities – including Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran – in connection with an alleged “Left-Right conspiracy” to topple the Arroyo regime. This case was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

The CPP-NPA leadership in the Philippines, in a number of statements, described the killings of Kintanar and Tabara as “acts of revolution.”

His next legal move, Sison said, would be to build up his legal defense by cross-examining the witnesses against him through his counsel.

Sison is known as the founding chairman of the CPP. In 1968 he led a group that broke away from the leadership of the Lava brothers in the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) and re-established the CPP.

Under Sison’s leadership, the CPP rapidly gained strength and together with the NPA, its armed component, it developed into one of the strongest organized forces opposed to the U.S.-Marcos regime during the martial law years.

He was the CPP’s highest-ranking leader from its reestablishment until he was arrested by the Marcos dictatorship in 1977.

Released in 1986 by virtue of then President Corazon Aquino’s general amnesty proclamation for political prisoners, Sison got involved in a number of legal political activities and even delivered a series of lectures at his alma mater, the University of the Philippines (UP).

In 1987, he found himself having to apply for political asylum after the Aquino government cancelled his passport while he was in Europe on a speaking tour. He has since lived in the Netherlands as an asylum seeker.

In 2002, the CPP-NPA was included by the U.S. Department of State in its list of “foreign terrorist organizations.” Sison was likewise listed as a “foreign terrorist.” The Council of the European Union followed suit later that year.

On May 29 this year, the Council of the European Union decided to retain Sison in its “terrorist” list. This decision was annulled by a July 11 verdict of the Luxembourg-based European Court of First Instance (ECFI). (Bulatlat.com)

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