“Filipinos have long wisened up to the empty doctrines of insurgents”

Former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte did not let pass Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Chairman Jose Maria Sison’s latest attack on his father, President Rodrigo Duterte, this time including him, accusing Sison of being a “pathological liar.”

Sison, in an online press briefing last Thursday, accused Paolo and the President of being “biggest protectors of illegal drugs” in the country.

In a statement posted on his Facebook page, the younger Duterte struck back, saying Sison’s accusation was a mere “repetition of, if not inspired by, an old gossip propagated and sowed around by an anti-Duterte senator, who is also a rabid anti-communist.”

Paolo did not identify the senator, but he was apparently referring to Mr. Duterte’s chief critic, opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

Trillanes, at a Senate hearing on the P6.4-billion shabu shipment from China that slipped through the Bureau of Customs (BoC), also linked Paolo and his father to the illegal drugs trade.

Paolo said Sison “who is a pathological liar himself, was parroting (another) liar.”

Paolo described Sison’s allegations as “insanely absurd.” He said “the founder of the oldest terror group in Southeast Asia is completely losing it.”

“This echolalia showed how much Mr. Sison was willing to take for the sake of public attention, propaganda and significance,” he said.

He added Sison’s wild accusations “showed the nature of his politics and principles — where it’s acceptable for enemies to sleep together in one bed, speak one language and unify forces and work together until the common target is toppled down.”

“Mr Sison’s insanity, just like the bloody Maoist revolution in the Philippines, will fail,” he said, adding Sison is a “disgrace to this country.”

Sison held the interview after the government set fresh conditions for resuming peace talks with communist rebels which he quickly rejected.

The rebels would have to drop the collection of “revolutionary tax” from businesses and their demand to be part of a coalition government.

Mr. Duterte’s peace adviser Jesus Dureza said talks would need to move to the Philippines from Europe and rebels would have to live in special camps.

“The doors for peace negotiations with the communist rebels are still open,” Dureza said in a statement.

Duterte called off negotiations in November and formally tagged the Communist Party of the Philippines and its 3,800-member armed wing, the New People’s Army, as “terrorist organizations.”

“Duterte has killed the peace talks,” Sison told journalists via video link from his base in The Netherlands, calling government officials “double-faced hypocrites” for claiming the negotiations could continue.

Sison, a former college professor of Duterte, said the communists had originally hoped the peace talks would progress under the President, who took office in mid-2016, calling himself a socialist.

He said the communist movement would be taking a major risk if it accedes to the demands of Mr. Duterte.

Previously, talks were to be held in Norway, but Duterte put them off.

Sison also said the military was overstretched, fighting Muslim extremists in the South and communist rebels in rural areas all over the country, adding his guerrillas faced “big opportunities to hit.”

“There will be more guerrilla offensives… while Duterte is in power,” he said.

Sison also sneered at the military’s estimate that the communists numbered fewer than 4,000, saying they had forces all over the country although he would not give specifics.

Calling the President a “monster,” Sison said regarding peace talks, the communists “can wait for the next government, the next administration.”

Asked how long the conflict would last, he said “the revolutionary forces will fight for as long as necessary to overthrow this rotten system.”

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Filipinos have long wisened up to the empty doctrines of insurgents so communist guerrilla fighters are surrendering in record numbers.

Lorenzana issued the statement to belie Sison’s claims Mr. Duterte and “pro-US militarists” in the security cluster of his Cabinet are destabilizing their own regime.

Sison also predicted Duterte will be ousted by a combination of mass actions and withdrawal of support of the military and police.

“Come back home, Mr. Sison, and find out for yourself what your country and countrymen have become. Your country has progressed a lot despite your destabilization efforts for the past 49 years. The people have (wisened) up to the bankruptcy of your so-called revolution. Your army is surrendering in record numbers and is taking advantage of the beneficence of the government, the government you so detest you want to bring it down violently,” Lorenzana said.

“Or maybe you don’t want to come back because you will be made to account for your sins, like the Plaza Miranda bombing, the mass liquidation of NPA cadres on suspicion of being deep penetration agents,” Lorenzana added.