Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, who launched one of the world’s longest-running Maoist insurgencies, has died at 83, the Communist Party of the Philippines announced Saturday.
The former university professor died in the Netherlands, where he had lived in self-imposed exile since the collapse of peace talks in 1987 when the rebellion that has claimed tens of thousands of lives was at its peak.
“Sison… passed away at around 8:40 p.m. (Philippine time) after two weeks’ confinement in a hospital in Utrecht,” the party said in a statement, without specifying the cause of death.
“The Filipino proletariat and toiling people grieve the death of their teacher and guiding light.”
The Philippines’ defense ministry said his death could finally lead to an end to violence in the country, calling Sison the “greatest stumbling block” to peace.
“The death of Sison is but a symbol of the crumbling ierarchy” of the communist movement, it said, calling for remaining rebels to surrender.
“A new era without Sison dawns for the Philippines… Let us now give peace a chance.”
Malacanang had yet to comment on his death as of press time, but Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio said on her Facebook account: “May God have mercy on his soul.”
Sison had hoped to overthrow the government and establish a Maoist regime that would end “US imperialism” in the former American colony.
The US State Department designated the communist party and its armed wing foreign terrorist organizations in 2002.
The ongoing armed struggle, launched in 1969, grew out of the global communist movement, finding fertile soil in the Philippines’ stark rich-poor divide.
At its peak in the 1980s, the group boasted about 26,000 fighters, a number the military says has now dwindled to a few thousand.
Since 1986, successive Philippine administrations have held peace talks with the communists through their Netherlands-based political arm, the NDF.
The 2016 election of former president Rodrigo Duterte—a self-declared socialist and a former student of Sison—brought a burst of optimism for peace talks.
But the talks later devolved into threats and recrimination, with Duterte officially cutting them off in 2017, declaring the group a terrorist organization and accusing them of killing police and soldiers while negotiations were underway.
In recent years, the government has claimed that hundreds of communist rebels have surrendered in exchange for financial assistance and livelihood opportunities.
Deadly clashes still take place in different parts of the country, which is also plagued by kidnap-for-ransom groups and Islamist secessionist movements in the southern region.
Sison’s death was confirmed by the CPP’s official newsletter Ang Bayan on Saturday.
“The entire Communist Party of the Philippines gives the highest possible tribute to its founding chairman, great Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thinker, patriot, internationalist, and revolutionary leader,” Ang Bayan stated.
“Even as we mourn, we vow to continue to give all our strength and determination to carry the revolution forward guided by the memory and teachings of the people’s beloved Ka Joma,” it added.
At the time of his death, Sison was the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF). He also co-founded the New People’s Army (NPA) in 1969.
Ka Joma was also the chairperson emeritus of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles. He was a youth leader and university professor.
Sison was one of the political prisoners released by the late former President Corazon Aquino following the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution that resulted in the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., father of the present President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
While staying in the Netherlands, Sison’s passport was canceled by the Philippine government following his persistent attacks against the Aquino administration.
In 2019, Duterte decided to terminate all peace negotiations with the communist rebels and instead created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict to get rid of rebellion. With AFP