Sison of madness

Move over “fake news” and “alternative facts,” Joma is here.

Joma, or Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison, is at it again. His latest caper has landed him on the front pages of newspapers. Ironically, it’s not for news but for spreading lies.

In his Facebook post Sunday, Sison made the disconcerting claim that he received information President Rodrigo Duterte had gone into a coma, although in the same breath he admitted the report was “still to be verified.”

He said based on statements of those who saw the President during the national convention of his San Beda law fraternity Lex Taliones, it appeared Duterte was not in good health.

To buttress his incredible claim, Sison went as far as to say that based on his information, President Duterte had been in a coma since Sunday evening, 19 August.

This claim, which does not have a leg to stand on in the first place, came crashing down when Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go said: “The President is in a kama (bed), not in a coma.”

In fact, Go said he was able to speak with the President at around 2 a.m. Monday.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque also lashed back at Sison, saying the communist leader does not know what he is talking about.

“As usual, Joma Sison does not know what he talks about. How would he know about the state of health of the President when he is far away in The Hague, Netherlands?” said Roque at a Palace press briefing.

Noting that Sison is not a doctor but just a “spent revolutionary,” Roque urged the public not to listen to the false information the communist leader is peddling.

If there is anything that Sison and the communists are good at, it’s in propaganda utilizing malicious, misleading or outright false — even outlandish — information.

To digress a little, the protest actions with the staid Marcos-era slogans, burning of effigies and provoking confrontation with authorities—these are the bread and butter of the communists.

It not only draws public attention, but also enables them to fill their begging bowl courtesy of bleeding hearts in Europe who have no idea of the actual situation here in the country.

So, after Duterte called off the peace talks between the Philippine government and the CPP-National Democratic Front due to the duplicity of the communist group, Sison went on untrammeled propaganda offensive.

He accused Duterte of trying to establish a fascist dictatorship and claimed the communist party will topple the Duterte government, to name a few. All these were shown to be patently false.

But going back to the coma issue, it was actually Duterte himself who exposed Sison’s tall tale.

Go shot a video of Duterte and streamed it on Facebook live Monday night, showing the President at a table with a woman.

“I am alive, fairly healthy and I’m having dinner with a beautiful lady,” Duterte said.

In his characteristic riposte, Duterte said that even if he were comatose he would rise up if a lady as beautiful as his companion came to see him.

“You are the one who is sick,” Duterte added.

The President is apparently referring not only to Sison’s physical well-being but also to the latter’s state of mind.

Over 30 years of exile and prolonged confinement in jails must have wreaked havoc on Sison’s mental health which would explain his latest fantasy.

It is unfortunate as Sison showed great promise in his youth. Moved by social ills, he joined the communist movement in the country and later formed the CPP, guided by the Marxism-Leninism-Mao thought, to attain social justice and progress in the country. That was the Sison of hope.

He was caught and imprisoned for almost nine years during the Marcos era. Released by the Cory Aquino government after the 1986 People Power Revolution, he soon went into exile in The Netherlands where he was initially jailed and released only in 2007. That was the Sison of despair.

Duterte actually bent backwards to accommodate the Reds and give Sison another crack at leaving a lasting legacy and greatness when he extended a hand of peace to the communists. He even broke precedents by appointing left-leaning people to his Cabinet.

But Sison mistook Duterte’s generosity for weakness and tried to wrest all concessions he could get from the President, without giving in to the simple demand for a ceasefire to give way for the peace process.

That was a costly mistake. Duterte may be kind but he’s no fool and rightly called Sison’s bluff. With the peace talks in tatters and the government’s plan to localize them, Sison increasingly found himself isolated and growing irrelevant every day.

It is something that must have addled Sison’s mind—not to mention his sense of hearing—that he lost touch of reality and resorted to spreading outrageous stories about Duterte to satisfy his cravings for attention and inflate his flagging ego. That must be the Sison of madness.