MANILA – The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) will be working to oust President Rodrigo Duterte this year, the communist group’s leader Jose Maria Sison said.
In a statement, Sison said unseating Duterte will be the “principal work” of their group but added that the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) – CPP’s political arm – is still “authorized to be open to peace negotiations.”
“The NDFP will further strengthen itself as the most consolidated realization of the national united front but will be able to cooperate with all possible allies in the broad united front in order to isolate and oust the Duterte regime from power,” Sison said.
He added: “The NDFP is authorized to be open to peace negotiations with the current and prospective regime of the reactionary government but its principal work now is to work for the ouster of the Duterte regime.”
Duterte seemed not interested to hold serious peace negotiations to address the roots of the armed conflict but instead wanted the “impossible” – which is the surrender of the revolutionary movement of the people – according to Sison.
“We see Duterte further inflicting grave social and economic suffering on the people this year and unleash mass murder and other human rights violations in a futile attempt to destroy the armed revolutionary movement and intimidate the people,” he said.
“The New People’s Army, the CPP’s armed wing, will intensify its offensives against government forces while carrying out agrarian revolution and mass work,” he added.
The intensified offensives, according to Sison, are meant to develop a fully armed company per guerrilla front and fulfill the maturation of the strategic defensive and proceed to the strategic stalemate in a few years’ time.
Sison is hell bent for the ouster of Duterte ever since negotiations between the NDFP and the government bogged down in November 2017 upon the President’s order. Since then, the government has been pushing for localized peace talks with the communists./PN
