Q 8: Is not the job of ILPS chairperson so heavy and preoccupying that you have no more time to work for any Philippine organization? By working for the ILPS, are you not reducing your working time for the struggle of the Filipino people for national and social liberation?  Within the ILPS, are you not likely to give a disproportionate amount of attention to the said struggle?

JMS: The work of the ILPS chairperson is indeed heavy and preoccupying. I have to do a lot of the things that a chairperson would not do in a well-financed and well-staffed organization. The speeches that I address to various organizations, the articles that I write for various publications and the legal cases that I am involved in also take a lot of my time. But I still manage to be the Chairperson of the International Network for Philippine Studies and chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

The organized forces in the Filipino people’s struggle for national and social liberation are relatively well developed. They would not consider as a loss of time the work that I devote to the ILPS. On the other hand, they could consider my work for the ILPS as an opportunity for the Filipino people’s struggle to be better known and to gather political and moral support on a global scale. Many patriotic and progressive organizations in the Philippines are member-organizations of the ILPS because they recognize the need for international solidarity and common struggle against imperialism and all reaction.

I avoid giving a disproportionate amount of attention or whatever benefit to the Filipino people’s struggle because I am always conscious of the ILPS as an international alliance and coordinating center for all its member organizations and allies on a global scale. The ILPS member organizations from the Philippines are numerous and thus provide a strong support to the ILPS.  But the Philippines like any other country is subject to the rule that it can have a maximum of only three seats in the ICC.  This rule ensures the international character of the ILPS.

Q 9: How much of a problem to the ILPS and to you as ILPS chairperson are the “terrorist” listing and the court cases involving you in the Philippines, The Netherlands and Europe?

JMS: Because the ILPS and its member organizations have an anti-imperialist and democratic character, they are in firm solidarity with me and strongly support me against the “terrorist” listing and the false charges hurled against me. They see the false charges against me as violations of my human rights and blatant acts of oppression. They see the monstrous hands of the U.S. and other imperialist states and the Arroyo puppet regime.

The false charges have been used to deny me legal admission as a refugee and residence in The Netherlands, to ban me from work, to freeze my bank account, to terminate my social benefits, to curtail my right to travel, to put me in prison last year, to have the excuse to raid the NDFP office and the homes of seven Filipino families, to intimidate my colleagues and friends, to attack me with further prosecution and imprisonment, to stigmatize me and incite hatred and violence against my person and to inflict material and moral damages me without letup.

The ILPS is accustomed to having its highest officials subjected to oppression. Deputy Chairperson Memik Horuz was arrested and imprisoned in Turkey for many years since 2001. Honorary Chairperson Crispin Beltran was imprisoned in the Philippines from 2006 to 2007. ICC member Dr. Ahmad Maslamani was imprisoned for several years from 2005 onwards. I joined the distinguished group by my imprisonment in the Netherlands in 2007. In each case of oppression, the ILPS member organizations stood up in various countries to defend the democratic rights of the victim. Whenever an ILPS officer was imprisoned, the ILPS launched campaigns to denounce the injustice and demand the release of the prisoner.

Q 10: Can you give a message to the ILPS member-organizations and the people of the world? What are the problems to overcome and what are the tasks for overcoming these and advancing to a  new and higher level?

JMS: Once more I wish to thank all the ILPS member organizations for keeping me in their trust and confidence and reelecting me to the ICC. Let us all work together in order to carry forward the people’s struggle for national and social liberation against imperialism and all reaction. Let us exert ever greater efforts to arouse, organize and mobilize the broad masses of the people. The people themselves are eager to wage mass struggles because they cannot tolerate the acute suffering that they are undergoing in the ever worsening crisis of the world capitalist system, especially under the US-instigated policies of “free market” globalization and the global “war on terror.”

The problems to overcome are the evils of monopoly capitalism and all reaction and all the policies and acts of exploitation and oppression that they imposed on the people. The people must fight  these evils resolutely and militantly and march from victory to victory. The tasks of overcoming the evils and advancing to a new and higher level of the struggle are gargantuan. But our strength is still very limited. We must build on our existing strength, overcome our own weaknesses and increase our strength several fold by undertaking the necessary work in the fields of education, organization and mass mobilization. (Bulatlat.com)