The fact is, a growing number of their members are turning a new leaf in their lives as they begin to go back to the mainstream of society.

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Ma. “Joma” Sison lives in a fantasy world that he created to make him claim that the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte is heading downhill while his revolutionary movement is on the rise which actually are the complete opposite of reality, Chief presidential legal counsel and spokesman Salvador Panelo remarked.

The exiled Sison released a statement to his cadres on the occasion of the CPP anniversary on 26 December entitled “Duterte regime goes downhill as revolutionary movement rises.”

Panelo said such a statement coming from Sison is a proof of his hallucination.

“It is his movement that is on downhill while the Duterte presidency keeps on rising and the surge in his popularity and trust rating is a resounding proof,” Panelo said in a statement.

“The fact is, a growing number of their members are turning a new leaf in their lives as they begin to go back to the mainstream of society,” he added.

The Palace official said many of the CPP-NPA members are realizing that their past struggles and sacrifices have led to nothing except the shedding of bloodshed among Filipinos, family members being separated from each other and the productive lives of young, ideal and even brilliant minds wasted on the hills and always on the run fighting a lost cause abandoned even by those who advanced it.

“The pontifications of the ageing and ailing revolutionary are coming from a megalomaniac as aptly described by a serious student of political history. Such a pitiful and tragic ending of someone whose brilliance, used to be revered by the youth of the seventies, has since then been dulled, by failing to embrace the realities of world politics and to accept the comatose state of a dying ideology,” Panelo said.

“Even their former allies are distancing themselves from them. The European Union which has been releasing funds to the local communist fronts has vowed to stop its financial aid after their money-making scams have been unmasked,” he added.

Sison, according to Panelo, also spoke of the worsening conditions of “underdevelopment, high unemployment, low income, soaring prices of basic commodities and mass poverty,” which are all not true.

“His decade-long comfortable and luxurious self-exile in Europe has placed blinders in his eyes hence he could not see the transformation of society initiated and propelled by the strong-willed leadership of the former Mayor of Davao City,” Panelo added.

“Foreign financial organizations foresee the Philippines as the fastest growing economy in the Asia-Pacific in 2020. Employment has hit a 14-year high. High inflation is now a thing of the past. Almost six million Filipinos have been lifted out of poverty,” he said.

Meanwhile, Panelo said Sison’s refusal to have a personal dialogue with his former student in the Philippines betrays his insincerity.

“We dare Mr. Sison to come to the Philippines for a one-on-one meeting with the President to forge a lasting peace agreement. PRRD guarantees that he will not be arrested upon his arrival and after the meeting he can freely leave for Netherlands when he so desires,” Panelo said.

At the same time, Panelo said Sison and his comrades can proceed with the cancellation of the ceasefire and the President will oblige them after he threatened to cancel the ceasefire if his demand from the government the production of the orders suspending the military and police operations against the communist rebels is not met.

Sison made the demand in a Facebook interview.

“He threatens to cancel the ceasefire if these orders are not shown to the NDF panel. These orders are not forthcoming,” Panelo said.

“In the first place, they have violated their own declared unilateral ceasefire. So there is not even logic in their threat.”