Although the death of Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairperson Jose Maria "Joma" Sison has "deprived" the Filipino people of the opportunity to get justice against the violence and atrocities he maneuvered, the Department of National Defense said Friday a new better era dawns for the Philippines.

"(It) is but a symbol of the crumbling hierarchy of the CPP-NPA-NDF, which he founded to violently put himself in power," a DND statement read, referring to the CPP's armed group New People's Army and National Democratic Front.

"Sison was responsible for the deaths of thousands of our countrymen. Innocent civilians, soldiers, police, child and youth combatants died because of his bidding," the DND said, adding that five decades of "brutal and bloody aggression" by communist groups against the state and the Filipino people "have led to nothing but destruction and strife for thousands of Filipinos."

"The greatest stumbling block of peace for the Philippines is gone; let us now give peace a chance," it added.

DND called on the remaining few Joma believers, who have unwittingly turned themselves into the enemy of the people, still blinded by his duplicitous and failed promises, to turn their backs on the violent and false ideology of the CPP-NPA-NDF.

Vice President Sara Z. Duterte's brief statement yesterday, read: "May God have mercy on his soul."

No funeral services for Joma

Meanwhile, the anti-communist group League of the Parents of the Philippines, has offered condolences to the family of Sison amid his death but expressed disappointment that the latter died being freed from the crimes he committed in the country.

"We, together with the families of the victims of the CPP-NPA-NDF which was headed by Joma Sison, regret that he died without being punished for all the crimes he committed against the Filipino people," the LPP told the Daily Tribune.

The LPP also urged both houses of Congress to prevent any partylist group linked to Sison's communist group from conducting of funeral services in honor of Sison, who is "a terrorist and not a hero."

"Let Joma be buried in the Netherlands because he doesn't deserve to be planted on the Philippine soil. He was a murderer and should not be given the honor in our land," the LPP said, chiding the Dutch government for coddling Sison for a long-time "knowing that he has committed serious crimes in the country."

The CPP-NPA-NDFS on Saturday announced the death of the communist founder Sison in its official internet portal, Philippine Revolution Web Central.

"The entire Communist Party of the Philippines gives the highest possible tribute to its founding chairman, great Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thinker, patriot, internationalist, and revolutionary leader," the party said.

Sison's, 83, who founded the CPP on 26 December 1968, died on Friday night after a two-week confinement in a hospital in the Netherlands.

Unsuitable for highest tribute

In another statement, the Legal Cooperation Cluster of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict slammed the PRWC for claiming Sison as "the greatest Filipino of the past century."

"The CPP-NDF-NPA can heap their praises and highest tribute to Joma Sison but he will never be the greatest Filipino of this generation, not of the past, and not of the future," NTF ELCAC's LCC spokesperson Flosemer Chris Gonzales said.

Gonzales said Sison will be remembered by the Filipino people "as the founder of the single most destructive and most notorious terrorist organization in the Philippines."

"The CPP-NDF-NPA statement says it mourns the death of Joma. We, however, mourn for all those who have fallen victims to the atrocities and acts of violence committed by the CPP-NDF-NPA in pursuit of the directives of its leader Ka Joma Sison," he added.

The anti-insurgency task force, he said, will work relentlessly to fully eliminate CPP-NPA-NDF and its allies in the country.

"The CPP-NDF-NPA statement ends with a vow to carry the revolution guided by the teachings of their "beloved" Ka Joma. We say we renew our collective vow to put an end to the CPP-NDF-NPA terrorist organization, and we vow to bury this terrorist organization along with its dead founder Jose Maria Sison," he said.

"We will not rest until every single last terrorist of the CPP-NDF-NPA and their allied front organizations here and abroad are arrested, prosecuted, punished, and or neutralized or have chosen the path of reconciliation by surrendering unconditionally to the government."

Sison's death, end of communist terrorism

Lorraine Badoy, a former NTF ELCAC spokesperson during Duterte's administration, meanwhile said the sudden demise of Sison will serve as an "imminent death of the CPP-NPA-NDF."

"My only regret is that he didn't die here and by our own judicial system. And by our own hands. The Netherlands coddled and lent protection to this mass murderer for close to 4 decades and he, therefore, did not pay for the million and one crimes he committed and the massive grief and sufferings he was responsible for," Badoy said in a Viber message.

"And I take gleeful joy knowing this weak organization whose sun rose and set on what this monster ordered and said now stands headless and it won't be long till it totally crumbles," she added.

Badoy, however, said Sison's living comrades should face the charges filed against them for being part of the CPP-NPA-NDF.

CPP-NPA-NDF revolution

The Armed Forces of the Philippines, meanwhile, said the loss of a "teacher" and "guiding light" leaves the communist organization "with no purpose and clear direction."

"It's an opportunity for his successor if there will be, to chart a new direction in promoting reforms. Hopefully, away from armed struggle," AFP spokesperson, Col. Medel Aguilar, said in a text message.

"But the organization needs to have a good teacher and guiding light who will lead its members away from violence and destruction," Medel added.