A Philippine military official on Thursday, January 3 said Communist leader Jose Maria “Joma” Sison is “hallucinating,” a day after Sison said that ousting President Rodrigo Duterte in 2019 was the “priority” of the communist rebels.
“He must not only be dreaming, he is hallucinating. From here on, any moves by the CPP-NPA (New People’s Army)-NDF (National Democratic Front) and its allied organizations to oust the President will be attributed to Mr. Sison,” said Col. Noel Detoyato, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public affairs chief to reporters.
He added, “This consultant is not advising his clients properly,” pertaining to Sison being the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front for the peace negotiations and founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
Sison has been in self-exile at The Netherlands for more than 30 years. He said that the NDF, the political arm of the CPP, would still be authorized to keep its doors open for the possible resumption of the peace talks with the Philippine government.
However, Sison said that the whole communist organization’s top priority would be the ouster of Duterte.
“The NDFP is authorized to be open to peace negotiations with the current and prospective regime of the reactionary government but its principal work now is to work for the ouster of the Duterte regime,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
“The Filipino people expect that this year, 2019, the socioeconomic and political crisis of the ruling system will worsen and that the Duterte regime will not solve or soften but will even aggravate the crisis by imposing heavier taxes and causing the prices of basic goods and services to rise further,” he added.
He also reiterated that a de facto or proclaimed nationwide martial law would be used by the Duterte administration to control the midterm elections.
