Conversations with Joma Sison and Julie de Lima: 'Mangoes and Escape Plans'

on December 16 at about 8:40 pm, Philippine time. Rappler is publishing this excerpt with the permission of the author.

The red brick and cream-colored houses begin blurring together in my vision. A few medium-rise buildings with wide glass windows crack the dreariness of brick. Pigeons and crows fly low, almost swiping my head, blithely unafraid of humans. I’m told Kanaleneiland has one of the highest poverty and crime rates in the country. Some pizza places won’t even deliver to this area, afraid of muggings. I pass by the only affordable restaurant I’ve seen in Utrecht, at the garage shack of a Turkish cook.

Joma and Julie live beside the shimmering Rhine canal, a lengthy stretch of water curving southeast from Amsterdam into Utrecht and central Holland. Long barges carrying neatly stacked cargo on their decks are seen sailing along. We sit on the couch in their living room. More bookshelves than actual wall is visible in the 75-square-meter apartment. Their personal library includes a variety of communist literature from various parts of the globe; biographies of different world leaders ; tomes on old and new economic theories; writings by anti-left authors slandering the; and a few CD cases containing Frank Sinatra, Rey Valera, and a collection of Kundiman classics.

Joma and Julie have been stuck in the Netherlands since the Philippine government under then-president Corazon Aquino canceled Joma’s passport in September 1988 while the pair were abroad attending speaking engagements. A new charge of subversion was made against him. When the couple received word of this, they stayed for a few months in the home of NDFP [National Democratic Front-Philippines] cadres Luis Jalandoni and Coni Ledesma, fellow grandparents of the Philippine revolution.

Even then, Julie toyed with the idea that they’d still somehow find their way back. She vowed to keep growing her hair until she set foot on her homeland. Two years later, on her husband’s 50th birthday, she snipped her waist-long black locks with a long exhalation of resignation. Escaping back into the country was impossible. In the presence of friends and comrades she cut a faint smile, convincing everyone and herself that the matter must be put to rest. There would be better days.

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