MANILA, Philippines -- Jose Ma. Sison is not yet off the hook, according to National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales.

In an interview yesterday, Gonzales said Dutch prosecutors were set to appeal the ruling of The Hague court that freed the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) after 17 days in detention.

The court had turned down the request of the prosecution to keep Sison in jail, saying the evidence was not sufficient to show that the rebel leader, while living in the Netherlands, had directly ordered the killings of former comrades Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

The charges were filed by the widows of the two slain former rebel leaders.

“What happened was he was released instead of being kept in jail (indefinitely). It indicates that the judge sees him not as a flight risk (who will try to escape) from the Netherlands. But the judge did not say that the proceedings will stop,” said Gonzales in Filipino.

Gonzales insisted that Tabara and Kintanar, who became Sison’s rivals, could not have been murdered without orders from the CCP leadership. He said the New Peoples Army (NPA), the communist party’s armed wing, had owned up to the killings.

“What needs to be proven is the type of leadership that the CCP has, and the role played by the chairman of the communist party. The two could not have been killed without an order from the chairman of the party.”

Gonzales said that even though it was public knowledge that Sison was the CCP chair, the latter has continued to deny this.

“He keeps on saying that the chairman of the Communist Party is Armando Liwanag, and that he’s not Armando Liwanag,” said Gonzales, who added that the Netherlands and other European Union countries had long recognized Sison to be Armando Liwanag, the nom de guerre of the CCP leader.

He said the Dutch prosecutors’ next move would be to present additional evidence to support the murder charges against Sison, a former political science professor at the University of the Philippines.

Gonzales said that once its help is sought, the Philippine government would be willing to provide the link between Sison and Liwanag.

Meanwhile, Kintanar’s widow, Joy, marked her husband’s birthday yesterday by asking for prayers in her quest for justice.

“Please remember Rolly in your prayers … Please pray for us, his family, so that we may find the truth and justice we seek in relation to his untimely death on Jan. 23, 2003,” said Joy in a text message to the Inquirer yesterday.

Kintanar was said to be the former head of the NPA. He and Tabara were part of a faction in the CPP that opposed the leadership of Sison. The split fractured the communist movement in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

In Bacolod City, Tabara’s widow, Veronica, opted to stay mum on the Dutch court’s decision to Sison.

Arturo Tabara, 53, was the chair of the breakaway Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas, Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB). He was shot in a parking lot in Fairview, Quezon City, on Sept. 26, 2004, along with Stephen Ong, a college student and the boyfriend of his daughter.