TODAY’S ‘INTERNATIONAL DAY OF POLITICAL PRISONERS’ IS BOGUS

DAVAO CITY – Today’s sixth commemoration of the so-called International Day of Political Prisoners is bogus.

The Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) Partylist in Mindanao made the declaration in view of the reported plan by the communist front Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA) to hold early this afternoon a picket rally infront of Davao City’s First Congressional District Office on Quirino Ave. here.

ANAD Partylist-Mindanao pointed out that the self-anointed International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) that supposedly declared the celebration on Dec. 3, 2003 is nothing but another creation of Communist Party of the Philippines Chairman Jose Ma. Sison to implement the party’s international solidarity works as required in its Protracted People’s War (PPW).

In relation to the PPW, ILPS also supports to CPP-NPA-NDF’s “machinery build-up, general offensive and general uprising,” ANAD Partylist exposed in a press release sent out by its Mindanao Spokesman Art Tariman.

Jose Ma. Sison continues to hold the ILPS chairmanship since its founding on May 25, 2001 in Zutphen, The Netherlands.

The other ILPS founding officers were the late Anak Pawis Partylist Congressman Crispin Beltran as Chairman of the International Coordinating Group, Cherry Clemente as ICC First Deputy, former Anak Pawis Partylist Congressman Rafael Mariano as ICC Member and ILPS-Philippines Head, and Gabriela Partylist Congresswoman Liza Maza as ICC Member.

According to ANAD Partylist, ILPS aims to exploit the following 18 subjective concerns and issues to help attain the objective condition of the revolution: national liberation, socio-economic development, human rights, just peace, independent trade union and workers' rights, agrarian reform women's rights, youths’ right to education and employment, children's rights, indigenous peoples’ rights, teachers and educators’ rights, people’s right to health, science & technology, and environmental protection, arts and culture and free flow of information, justice for the victims of illegal arrest and detention, rights of the homeless, migrants and refugees, rights of the elderly, and rights of homosexuals, bisexuals and trans-gendered.

The activities of ILPS revolves around the stimulation, facilitation and coordination of common lines of action, the undertaking of definitive actions on its 18 concerns and issues, the cooperation with all possible organizations, institutions and personalities to attain the ILPS aims and purposes, explained ANAD Partylist, adding that ILPS’ current tasks include the following:
• Express solidarity and support whenever necessary;
• Double efforts to establish national chapters;
• Take political initiative to promote anti-imperialist and democratic lines;
• Consult and seek drafts from participating organizations and study commissions;
• Attract participating organizations belonging to countries where anti-imperialist and democratic struggles of the people are intense; and
Cooperate with other anti-imperialist coordinating centers and frameworks to gain access to and cooperate with other mass formations that are not yet within the ILPS. (ANAD PARTLIST-MINDANAO INFONEWS BUREAU email: anadpartylist_mindanao@yahoo.com)