PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte’s “lack of interest” in pushing forward for social and economic reforms led to the collapse and failure of the peace negotiations, his former professor, Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison said Tuesday.
Responding to the scathing remarks made by his former student during his second State of the Nation Address , Sison took a snide over his pronouncements that resuming the peace talks was a “waste of time.”
“[Duterte] is only interested in demanding the surrender of the revolutionary movement through a protracted and indefinite kind of ceasefire ahead of any comprehensive agreement on reforms,” the communist leader said in a statement.
“[Duterte] is really not interested in peace negotiations concerning social, economic and political reforms to lay the basis for a just and lasting peace,” he added.
While Sison acknowledged that Duterte’s job is to “bully and kill the enemies of the state,” he warned him against his “tendency and personal temperament to violate the human rights of his political rivals, critics and the poor people suspected of being drug addicts and pushers.”
In a television interview, Sison criticized Duterte for flip-flopping on his promise to end the decades-long communist insurgency in the country.
“Duterte keeps on flipflopping. Sometimes he would say that he doesn’t like to negotiate anymore, but sometimes he puts in a qualification that ‘If you don’t like it anymore, we will not want to do it anymore,’” Sison told ANC in a television interview.
He noted that Duterte seemed to “reopen the doors” to peace negotiations when he directly addressed militants after the Sona.
But within hours, the President threatened to bomb lumad schools for allegedly spreading subversive ideas, Sison said.
In justifying the New People’s Army’s attack against members of the President’s security detail, Sison insisted that there was no existing ceasefire in place, adding that the two bullet-riddled PSG vehicles had no markings indicating they were government property.
“There is no ceasefire, no prior identification, no prior permission for the other side to be in the spot. Whether there is a ceasefire or not, there has to be some kind of clearance,” Sison said.
“It has been done before. [President] Duterte is not lacking in connection… Duterte could have contacted the responsible organ there through people he knows.”
The attacks were among the string of hostilities that later prompted Duterte to cancel peace talks with communist rebels.
Sison also reminded Duterte that he is also an old man.
“Duterte himself is an old man at 72. I am only six years older than him. So what is the public issue? I am still physically and mentally strong, trying hard as NDFP chief political consultant to help in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, which have been scuttled by Duterte,” he said.
He also denied Duterte’s claims that he has colon cancer.
“This is a blatant lie,” Sison said. “No findings of cancer of any kind, cardiac problem or any other malignancy which is life threatening.”
He also dared Duterte “to explain his disappearances for medical reasons because the public is entitled to know everything that pertains to his suitability for public office.”
Also on Tuesday, the Justice Department said leader of the communist National Democratic Front who were released from jail on provisional bail should now be arrested after Duterte called off the peace talks.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the Office of the Solicitor General was right in seeking the cancellation of bail grant on 20 NDF consultants led by spouses Benito and Wilma Tiamzon.
“Their release was temporary and preconditioned on the peace talks. If the peace talks will no longer be pursued then they should go back to jail,” he said. With Rey E. Requejo