MALACAÑANG on Wednesday described the 50-year insurgency being waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as a “failed rebellion,” stressing that the outlawed party’s founding chairman, Jose Maria Sison, is “out of touch” with reality.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador S. Panelo issued the remark after Sison, in an interview over ANC on CPP’s 50th anniversary on Wednesday, said the CPP-NPA remains relevant and would strengthen efforts to oust the President through its revolutionary movement.
In the broadcast interview, Sison also called President Duterte a “modern [day] maniac in power…who is not fit [to be a President].”
“If a mediocre student like Duterte and someone who is only good for being [a] mayor and even, bad as he was, engage in extrajudicial killing. Now you have a maniac, a modern [day] maniac in power trying to put on a national scale his blood-thirsty kind of character,” the exiled communist leader said.
Panelo retorted that “the 50 years of Joma Sison’s rebellion speaks for itself…a failed rebellion [that] only resulted in the loss of lives of Filipinos especially the numerous young students who were killed in ambushes, skirmishes, battles and in sickness in the hills, who could have served their country well in pacific and productive means, as well as the destruction of properties.”
Panelo also said that many communist rebels are already laying down their arms and surrendering while Sison remained in exile in the Netherlands since 1987.
“The NPA surrenderers are coming in droves responding to the call of the government to return to the fold of the law, while Mr. Sison remains ensconced in his ivory tower of comfort and luxury while his comrades die for a lost cause,” Panelo said.
“No wonder the forces on the ground no longer follow him [Sison] hence his regular rants against [Duterte] to give himself the appearance of relevance,” he added.
Panelo, meanwhile, encouraged Sison to also surrender before he becomes too weak to do so stressing that it was an honorable act to accomplish.
“It’s time for him to wave the white flag before his physique gives up on him. There is honor in returning back to a democratic society and embracing the constitutional order,” Panelo said.
He added that it’s “not too late” for Sison to embrace the rule of law and the majority and wished Sison well, in the spirit of Christmas.
“In the spirit of Christmas, we still wish him well and pray that he be blessed with inner peace and enlightenment,” Panelo said.
Duterte earlier ordered government forces to “destroy” the armed communist movement, firm in his decision not to subscribe to their five-day holiday ceasefire declaration.
“We do not subscribe to their ceasefire, we are ready for anything. Change your paradigm, do not fight them, destroy them. Destroy them, kill them,” Duterte said in a speech at Camp General Manuel T. Yan Sr. in Compostela Valley.
Duterte has terminated peace talks with the CPP-NPA, tagged by the US as terrorists, as they continued to commit abuses and demand for a coalition government.
Instead, through Executive Order 70, a national task force will be created to formulate a National Peace Framework anchored on the “whole-of-nation” approach which prioritizes the delivery of basic services and social development packages by the government, facilitates societal inclusivity, and ensures active participation of all sectors of the society in the pursuit of the country’s peace agenda.
Backward push
IN a separate statement issued by the CPP Central Committee, the group claimed that the economic and living conditions of Filipinos have worsened under the Duterte administration.
The country’s economic condition was pushed backward with massive unemployment and retrenchment registered in the country, whose patrimony has been sold to China, the group said, adding that the administration has continued to wallow in fiscal deficit and debts, wherein in September, the budget gap has widened by almost 80 percent to P378 billion, from P231 billion during the same period last year
To finance its programs and operations, the CPP said, the government has planned to borrow as much as P624.4 billion next year.
“Duterte is seeking an excessive amount of loans from China, as well as from the Asian Development Bank and other financial institutions in order to spend for his ‘Build, Build, Build’ program,” it said.
Looking into the country’s debt, the CPP claimed that under Duterte, the Philippine public debt rose by more than 17 percent to P7.167 trillion, from P6.09 trillion in 2016.
The country’s trade deficit has also risen sharply to $33.9 billion in the first 10 months, surpassing the $27.4 billion trade gap last year, and it is expected to reach $40 billion by the end of 2018.
“This is the result of large increases in importation of capital goods to supply semi-processing and China-funded infrastructure binge. There is a slow growth of exports in the face of the global economic slowdown,” it said.
The CPP claimed that the deterioration of the socioeconomic conditions of Filipinos, was even exacerbated by the administration’s policy of social spending cuts and privatization of public services.
Bernadette Nicolas, Rene Acosta and PNA