COMMUNIST leaders on Wednesday called on their cadres to resist the “anti-people and fascist” rule of President Rodrigo Duterte as the word war between him and Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison escalated.
In a July 26 editorial of its official publication, “Ang Bayan,” the CPP’s Central Committee denounced Duterte’s “strongman ambitions” and accused him of assuming “the role of the neo-colonial client-state of the US imperialists.”
“The US-Duterte regime is bound to face the Filipino and Moro people’s all-out resistance and is risking a fate worse than the detested US-Marcos dictatorship,” the CPP warned.
It also called on its armed wing, the New People’s Army to “carry out extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare” and step up its recruitment of more fighters to counter state forces.
While the CPP acknowledged that Duterte sought talk peace with the communists, the administration “failed to cause the pacification and capitulation of the party” because of its threats to impose authoritarian rule.
“Duterte has the predilection for employing iron-hand tactics. He has caused widespread death and destruction in the three wars he has launched: the so-called war against drugs, the war against the Moros and the all-out war against the revolutionary forces and the Filipino people. He has extended Mindanao martial law and seeks to expand it,” the communists said.
At a press briefing on Monday night soon after his second State of the Nation Address, Duterte said that his decision to end peace talks with the communist rebels was final, as he ordered the military to be “unforgiving” to the communists following their attacks against government forces.
In his speech on Tuesday night, Duterte said that he would wage war with the CPP, which has been represented in the talks by its political arm, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
“You do not want to talk, you want war. I will give it to you. I will prepare my armed forces,” Duterte said.
The President slammed Sison, his former professor, for allegedly lying about his health and advised him to “kill himself,” saying that it would be a favor to the Norwegian government.
“Sison, you’re growing old there, and you still won’t admit you’re sick,” Duterte said in Filipino, addressing the communist leader who has lived in self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987.
“Have pity on the Norwegian government and kill yourself.”
Duterte said Norway’s sponsorship of the peace talks was growing expensive, and has become a political issue in Norway, which holds parliamentary elections on Sept. 11.
In his State of the Nation Address, Duterte said that Sison had colon cancer, a claim that Sison denied.
Duterte also expressed regret inviting consultants of the National Democratic Front to a dinner in Malacañang, apparently telling his staff in jest that they should have poisoned them.
“Why were they not poisoned?” he jokingly asked, to the laughter of the crowd.
But on Wednesday, Sison shot back, advising Duterte to look after his mental health and consult a psychiatrist.
“I pity him and I am tempted just to let him go because what he says against me is patently baseless and comes obviously from a sick mind. But I still have to answer him to prevent him from misleading the public and rousing them the wrong way,” Sison said in a Facebook post.
“At any rate, he has to look after his mental health and consult with a professional psychiatrist. Is Duterte the kind of president and commander in chief the [Philippine government] can rely on for the factual basis of martial law which puts at risk the liberties, lives and limbs of millions of people?” he added.
While he was “amused” by the President’s advice for him to commit suicide, Sison said he would never give Duterte the same advice.
“But what I suggest to him is to consult a professional psychiatrist to take care of his mental health,” he said.
“First, he threatened to kill me. Now, he tells me to commit suicide. Is this another symptom of a malady in which the sick person enjoys boasting of having police units and death squads that commit extrajudicial killings with impunity and with monetary rewards per victim?” he added.
Sison denied Duterte’s claims that he spends most of his time in Norway seeking medical treatment. In “a few minor instances,” he said, the Norwegian government extended medical assistance to him.
Responding to the CPP’s threats, Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella blamed the communists’ “distorted perception” of Duterte’s actions for the widening rift.
“I think they have it—they have [a] distorted perception of what the President is doing. Basically, the President has been very open. He has actually engaged them,” Abella said.
Abella said Duterte bent over backwards to pursue peace talks with the communists, but decided to drop them when he realized that his goodwill had not been reciprocated by the CPP-NDFP.
“Apparently, he [Duterte] doesn’t perceive that there is a commensurate response,” Abella said.
In a chance interview Tuesday night, Labor Secretary and government chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III said the government peace panel is still awaiting for Duterte’s final instruction before they send a letter to formally terminate peace talks with the communist rebels.
“We are still waiting for the final instruction [from Duterte]. To terminate the talks, we have to write them and inform them that we are terminating [the talks],” Bello said.
“It will take effect 30 days after the receipt of the letter. We will write the letter upon the instruction of the President. If he said we send a formal termination, then we would do that,” he added.
Bello expressed disappointment that the peace talks were being scrapped at a time when negotiations were moving forward, but said he understood why the President canceled backchannel talks.
“The President was right, because while we are talking about peace, the other side should show sincerity, or what we call confidence-building measures,” Bello told a radio interview in Filipino.
“Nobody can gainsay the President when it comes to showing his sincerity and the political will to push the process forward,” he added.
Abella on Wednesday said leftist members of the Cabinet continued to enjoy the President’s trust and confidence.
“The Cabinet members are different from the NPA. They’re responsible—they’re not members of the NPA,” Abella said. “What is important is that they are doing their job in their departments.”
The National Democratic Front had earlier nominated Social Welfare and Development Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano, National Anti-Poverty Commission Secretary Liza Maza, and Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor chairperson Secretary James Mark Terry Ridon to join Duterte’s Cabinet, as part of his efforts to seek better ties with the left.
However, recent developments led to the scrapping of peace talks, with Duterte branding the Communist Party of the Philippines as “enemies of the state.”
Also on Wednesday, Senator Panfilo Lacson said the government should consider localized peace negotiations with the communist rebels.
Lacson, former chief of the Philippine National Police, cited the need to reassess the government;s peace initiatives through the CPP/NDF and consider letting local government units initiate talks, “under clear and strict guidance and supervision from the national government.”
“I fully support the President on this. It’s a no-brainer decision. For how can the government talk peace when the other party, by their action, is not willing [to do the same] or at least not sincere?” he said.
Senators Gregorio Honasan and Joel Villanueva also supported the cancellation of talks with the NDF.
Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza announced the government’s cancellation of backchannel talks after the NPA attacked a Presidential Security Group convoy in Cotabato.
