Blaming the Dutch

Manila Standard Today editorial on the mass action against the dutch government. This is found in the paper's 31 August 2007 edition. For the on-line version, its: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=editorial_aug31_2007

Editorial

Dutch retreat

IT is instructive to watch how quickly Philippine leftist groups have turned against the Dutch people and their elected government.

After Dutch police arrested their ideological leader, Jose Ma. Sison, earlier this week in Utrecht, The Netherlands could do no right—according to the Left.

Never mind that the arrest stemmed from legitimate complaints filed by the widows of two of Sison’s former comrades who had been assassinated by the New People’s Army.

Forget, too, that the Dutch have provided refuge for Sison, his wife and his colleagues for two decades. During these 20 years, Sison lived it up in the safety of Utrecht while his wife collected welfare checks from the Dutch government. Sison’s own blog is full of photographs showing him at parties—hardly a difficult existence for a political refugee.

But immediately after Sison’s arrest, his colleague, National Democratic Front chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni—who also enjoys Dutch hospitality in Utrecht—condemned The Netherlands and accused its government of conspiring with Manila to deprive the communist leader of his rights.

Sison’s colleague also accused the Dutch authorities of the “utmost treachery and deceit” in the way they arrested him.

The National Democratic Front statement also excoriated the raids on Sison’s and his colleagues’ apartments and offices, accusing Dutch police of uncivilized behavior.

Strangely enough, these same leftists had no problem with Dutch civilization for the last 20 years. Now, it seems, all that has changed.

In Filipino culture, which puts a high premium on hospitality, nobody likes a house guest who badmouths his host. In their Dutch retreat this week, the leftists are showing exactly what kind of ingrates they can be.