CPP founder Joma Sison (L) and DFA Sec. Teddyboy Locsin Jr. (R)
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine authorities will not serve a warrant of arrest against Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Joma Sison in the premises of the country’s embassy in the Netherlands because of limited resources and since it would only create an “international spectacle,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Wednesday.
“If I may, I would like to issue a provisional answer which is to say ‘no.’ I will not enforce that warrant of arrest in an embassy abroad. I think there are practical considerations for that,” Locsin said.
“I think that if I were to enforce that and arrest him considering the limited resources we have in all our embassies abroad, we would present an international spectacle,” he added. “I do not wish to embarrass my country.”
Locsin was responding to the query of Senator Panfilo Lacson during the meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Commission on Appointments that tackled the nomination of Jose Eduardo Enciso Malaya III as the country’s ambassador to the Netherlands.
During the hearing, Lacson said he was told that it is the policy of the United States not to enforce warrants of arrest to wanted persons inside embassy premises.
“I wonder if we follow the same policy as regards embassies located abroad because as we know, Mr. Sison has outstanding warrants of arrest,” he said regarding the CPP founder, who is now in exile in the Netherlands.
“As a matter of policy, once Mr. Sison sets foot inside the embassy premises in The Hague, are you going to effect or enforce or serve the warrant of arrest against Mr. Sison as a matter of policy, not just in The Hague but in other embassies as well?” Lacson asked Locsin, who answered in the negative.
Meanwhile, Senator Francis Tolentino also asked Malaya if he would be willing to meet with Sison if the latter would want to enter the premises of the Philippine embassy in the Netherlands.
Malaya, in response to Tolentino, explained that there are official communications in the field of diplomacy.
“In diplomacy, there are what you call official communications, dealings, across the tables, formal ones, at the same time there is what you call as corridor diplomacy,” he said.
“As somebody who has been exposed to this trade craft for quite some time, and in view of the fact that Mr. Sison, to my knowledge, remains to be a Filipino, it should be okay, or it may be okay for me to have dealings with him.
“With permission from higher authority in Manila, maybe I can invite him to the embassy for some functions. After all, he is part of the Filipino community in The Hague,” Malaya also said.