When exiled communist leader Jose Ma. Sison enters the Philippine embassy at the Hague, the Netherlands, can Philippine diplomats have him arrested since he has pending warrants of arrest issued in the Philippines?
After being presented with this ‘’completely novel’’ issue, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said he is giving a ‘’provisional NO’’ answer.
The query was posed to Locsin by Senator Panfilo M. Lacson, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Commission on Appointments (CA) when his committee questioned Jose Eduardo Enciso Malaya Jr. who was at a loss in answering the question.
Malaya’s fitness to be confirmed by the CA as Philippine Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands was subjected to the question and answer procedure at the CA.
Malaya said Sison, being a member of the Filipino community in the Netherlands, could enter the Philippine embassy in Utrecht.
Malaya said he might communicate with Sison through ‘’corridor’’ diplomacy.
Senator Francis Tolentino called this ‘’backdoor’’ diplomacy.
It was Lacson, author of the Anti-Terrorism Act , and Tolentino who asked Malaya if he could arrest Joma Sison when Sison enters the embassy.
Officials of the National Democratic Front (NDF) also stay in the Netherlands.
The CPP, NDF and the New People’s Army (NPA) compose the communist movement triumvirate.
When Tolentino asked him if he could execute or implement Philippines laws such as arrest warrants when Sison sits foot in the embassy it being a Philippine territory, Malaya said he would seek the advice of the Office of Presidential Adviser on Peace Process (OPAPP).
Malaya told Tolentino that he is not related to the wife of Jose Ma. Sison who, like Malaya, is a resident of Iriga, Camarines Sur.
Lacson recalled having been told by the US embassy here in Manila that it has no policy on arresting any national that enters the US embassy premises.
Unlike US embassies that have a contingent of Marines and considering the limited resources of the Philippines, arresting Sison might present a spectacle first at being laughed at and subsequently outrage and ‘I do not want to embarrass my country,’’ Locsin said.