Palace: Joma Sison talking nonsense on Bangsamoro law

January 20, 2019

Malacanang on Sunday slammed Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison for saying that President Rodrigo Duterte is setting a bigger armed conflict with the ratification of the Bangasamoro Organic Law.

"Communist Party of the Philippines Chairperson Jose Ma Sison has issued yet another statement on a local issue he knows nothing about," Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

"Apart from saying that he is talking nonsense on the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) being illusory, his latest rants are being ignored as a product of an idle mind in exile," he added.

Sison has been in exile in the Netherlands since 1987.

Panelo said the Palace is praying that Sison will be given a sound mind and a healthy body so that he will be spared from an unwelcome illness leading to what appears to be a journey to the unknown.

In a separate statement, Sison said that Duterte presumes wrongly that the Maranaws are in his pocket.

"Despite his claims to being a Maranaw, he is now hated by the Maranaws for destroying Marawi City, failing to make prompt rehabilitation and preventing the residents from returning to their homes and livelihood," Sison said.

"Duterte is quite heavy-handed and yet so sloppy in failing to offer satisfactory terms and secure the agreement of those strongly opposing the BOL. He is railroading the BOL through the plebiscite, under the duress and unfair condition of martial law," he added

Sison said Duterte is "setting the stage for a bigger armed conflict" in the Bangsamoro and adjoining areas.

"The MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) enjoys the support of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) and is angry that previous agreements and arrangements it has made with the Manila government under OIC auspices are being swept away so arbitrarily by Duterte," he said.

Sison said the main enemy of the Bangsamoro is still the "oppressive Manila government" that violates their right to self-determination.

"What Duterte is doing is to use the BOL to divide and rule the Bangsamoro by making the various Bangsamoro forces fight each other," he added.

The CPP founding leader said although Duterte comes from Mindanao, "he is in cahoots with the oligarchs of 'imperial Manila and Luzon' in subjugating the Bangsamoro and in controlling and plundering their human and natural resources in collaboration with imperialist powers," said Sison.

The Commission on Elections on Monday, January 21 will hold the plebiscite for the ratification of the BOL.

The poll body expecting a total of 2.1 million registered voters to cast their votes in 7,141 clustered precincts in 1,228 voting centers in the covered areas such as Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, Cotabato City, and Isabela City.

On February 6, similar plebiscite will be held in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato. Ella Dionisio/DMS