BY REINIR PADUA

THE National Democratic Front of the Philippines yesterday tagged as "absurd" the arrest of Communist Party founder Jose Maria Sison on a "recycled charge" that it said had been trashed by the Supreme Court.

One of Sison’s lawyers, Romeo Capulong, said this contention would be transmitted to the Dutch court in time for the first hearing in The Hague today.

Sison, on self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987, was arrested Tuesday for the killing of former allies Romulo Kintanar in 2003 and Arturo Tabara in 2004.

Luis Jalandoni, chairman of the negotiating panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, said the claim that Sison ordered the killing of Kintanar and Tabara was "thrown out" by the SC in a decision last July on the rebellion case filed against Sison and 50 others.

"It is therefore absurd that the Dutch authorities who are very much detached from Philippine realities can recycle the same charge utterly disregarding the Philippine Supreme Court decision," he said.

Jalandoni reiterated that the case of "incitement to killings" filed against Sison was politically motivated.

"The Dutch authorities and the Arroyo regime in Manila have conspired to persecute Professor Sison and to pursue a political agenda meant to seek the surrender of the revolutionary order," he said.

But Jalandoni said it was a mistake to think that "putting the squeeze" on Sison will force the NDFP to submit to conditions imposed by the Philippine government on the peace negotiations, including the complete surrender of its forces in the Philippines.

Fidel Agcaoili, NDFP chairman, said the negotiating panel will await instructions from the leadership of the revolutionary movement in the Philippines on the fate of the peace negotiations after Sison’s arrest.

Agcaoili added that the arrest of Sison "does not in any way contribute to the furtherance of the peace negotiations" between the Philippine government and the NDFP.

Jalandoni said Sison’s arrest "will practically kill the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations."

Leftist congressmen filed House Resolution 197 urging the committee on peace, reconciliation and unity to conduct an inquiry into Sison’s arrest to find out whether the Philippine government conspired with the Dutch government to pin him down.

Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo said one of the components of his joint resolution with fellow Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño is sending a group of congressmen to the Netherlands to monitor Sison’s condition and ensure that his rights are not violated.

The resolution said there are indications that Sison "was not accorded due process and denied his rights as he was not apprised of his alleged crime and was in fact "treacherously" arrested when he went to the police station with his lawyer upon invitation of Dutch authorities regarding a separate complaint he had filed in 2001."

It said Sison was requested to go to a room to answer some questions "but was whisked away," without his lawyer’s knowledge, to the national penitentiary in Scheveningen in The Hague where he is now under detention.

The resolution said that since the President congratulated national security adviser Norberto Gonzales, "It appears that the Philippine government played an active role in laying the ground for Professor Sison’s arrest and the assault on the NDFP peace panel."

It noted that Gonzales already admitted that Sison’s arrest had been in the works for a year and that the PNP had provided Dutch authorities with case files, various pieces of evidence as early as two years before the arrest.

The resolution said it is in the national interest that the GRP-NDFP peace talks "be prevented from undergoing a total collapse."

In Makati City, police dispersed a rally staged by members of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in protest of Sison’s arrest.

Five protesters were injured.

Bayan bewailed the dispersal saying they are just exercising their right to peaceful assembly and wanted their grievances against Sison’s arrest known to the Dutch Embassy.

The militants called for a boycott against Dutch products.