Palace to Joma Sison: Nothing dishonourable in accepting defeat

February 10, 2019

Malacanang on Sunday told Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison that there is nothing “dishonourable” in accepting defeat.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made the statement after Sison apperently felt from President Rodrigo Duterte's statement telling the Maoist group to stop collecting "revolutionary taxes" so that the peace talks could continue.

“Instead of welcoming the President’s softening of his hard line stance on no peace talks with the local communists unless it puts a stop to their collection of revolutionary taxes which is a euphemism for extortion, he considers it as an insult to them,” Panelo said.

“He claims that they cannot stop the extortion activities because its stoppage will deprive the ‘people’s government of financial resources for administration and social programs.’ Oh... they have a government?” he said.

The presidential spokesperson told Sison to wake up from his daydreaming lest he gets a nightmare that will cut short his "bourgeoisie lifestyle" in The Netherlands.

Panelo who called Sison an “armchair illusory rebel chieftain” said he started a noble cause that attracted hundreds of young minds who marched in the beat of his drums, who most of them perished depriving the country of young idealistic leaders.

He added the communist rebels have become victims of their own revolution.

“A handful of them managed to stay alive, and now, like Sison, are in the twilight of their lives, still hoping to overthrow the existing political order they failed to do for fifty two years,” he said.

“It is time to rejoin society. There is nothing dishonourable in accepting defeat,” he said.

Panelo said there is another path for change other than armed struggle.

“Filipinos cannot continue killing Filipinos. Sison must step down from his ivory tower and extend his hands for peace, for his own sake, for his followers, for the Filipino people, for his country he loves so well,” he said.

Duterte during his speech last Friday reiterated that he was opened to resume the peace negotiations with the communist rebels, days after he announced that he would never talk to them anymore.

“Let him join the ranks of heroic men and women who courageously fought to liberate their country from oppression and enslavement and begin to contribute his intellect and expertise in peaceful dialogues and productive undertakings, for the betterment and progress of the people that moved and inspired him to relentlessly tread the road of revolutionary struggle,” Panelo said.

"To miss this golden opportunity will only reduce him to a historical footnote and throw him into the dustbin of history. That will be tragic and such a waste," he added.

Duterte terminated the peace talks with the CPP-New People's Army-National Democratic Front in November 2017 due to the atrocities and extortion activities that the rebels continued to commit. Ella Dionisio/DMS