Palace, quoting Joma Sison, says Duterte’s inclusion in NPA hit list “false news”

December 23, 2019

Malacanang said on Monday that Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison has denied that President Rodrigo Duterte was on the Maoist group's hit list.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo's statement was contrary to the pronouncement of security officials that Duterte was in the target list of the communist New People's Army.

"That report is false news. That's been denied by Jose Maria Sison himself. So how can we respond to a false news?," he said when asked what convinced Duterte from declaring a holiday ceasefire with the Reds despite his inclusion in the rebels' hit list as earlier stated by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. 

But Panelo later said that whether Duterte was in the NPA hit list or not, it did not matter to the Palace "because the very essence of a rebellion is to put the government down."

"So, necessarily included there is the assassination of all the people running the government, that's all included in the plan," he said.

He assured that the administration is ready for all the threats, noting that for the past 50 years, the CPP-NPA-National Democratic Front has been trying to overthrow the government.

Contrary to the stance of his security officials, Duterte declared a ceasefire with the CPP-NPA-NDF from December 23 to January 7 as part of confidence-building measure for the possible resumption of the peace talks. 

Duterte wants to revive the peace process with the communist rebels after he terminated it in late 2017. Celerina Monte/DMS