By NDFP International Information Office
“A lie, even often repeated, is still a lie!”
This was the reaction of Fidel V. Agcaoili, Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) on the repeated denial by the Executive Secretary Gen. Eduardo Ermita and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) had nothing to do with the inclusion of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA) and Prof. Jose Maria Sison, Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, in the “terrorist listing” of the US and European Union governments.
The statements of Ermita and Gonzales came after the call to delist Prof. Sison was renewed following the Dutch prosecutors’ decision to stop the investigation and prosecution of Prof. Sison on the charges that he had participated in the killings of the two security consultants and military assets Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara for insufficient legal and convincing evidence.
“The trouble with Ermita and Gonzales is that they think that the Filipino people can easily be duped into believing their lies,” Agcaoili said. It must be remembered that the US government included the CPP, NPA and Prof. Sison in its “terrorist list” only a few days after the official visit of then US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Philippines in August 2002. “Even a child would readily see the relationship between these two events,” Agcaoili added.
“Subsequently, the late Foreign Secretary Blas Ople went on a tour of Europe to lobby the governments of the European Union (EU) to include the CPP, NPA and Prof. Sison in the EU ‘terrorist list’. Ople even admitted this in his 3 November 2002 column in the Manila Bulletin. These prove beyond doubt that Ermita and Gonzales are liars,” Agcaoili said.
The Macapagal-Arroyo regime had by then decided to ride on the now widely discredited Bush’s “war on terror” to justify and carry out its campaign of suppression against the revolutionary movement. “These shameless acts of Macapagal-Arroyo and her lap dogs Executive Secretary Gen. Ermita and NSA Gonzales showcase their puppetry to the Bush administration, “Agcaoili added.
Agcaoili further called on the Filipino people to remain ever-vigilant against the lies peddled by the Macapagal-Arroyo regime against Prof. Sison and the revolutionary movement.
“The denial of Ermita and Gonzales sounds as hollow and as false as the criminal charges they had invented against Prof. Sison. This is the simple truth,” Agcaoili concluded.
