Joma to Duterte: No need to prove my revolutionary courage

MANILA, Philippines — Communist party founder Jose Maria Sison lashed back at President Rodrigo Duterte following the leader’s challenge for him to return and fight in the Philippines, saying that he does not have to prove his “revolutionary will and courage.”

Sison, reacting to chief executive’s challenge for him to fight here together with his men, told the septuagenarian Duterte to cease from projecting an image of a “strutting young fighter” at his expense.

The founding chair of the CCP said that he had been part of the so-called people’s war during the years of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos from 1969 to 1977.

He was then imprisoned by the dictator until 1986, the year the former president was unceremoniously shipped out of the presidential palace as millions of Filipinos amassed along EDSA, a historic avenue in Manila.

Sison, also known as “Joma,” even bragged that he was able to surpass the field record of many military men who, after years on the field, were assigned to desk work until their retirement at the mandatory age of 56.

On Thursday, Duterte blasted the communist leader for being in another country and allowing a foreign government to allegedly spend money and feed him.

“If you are truly a revolutionary leader, my God, come home and fight here,” the chief executive said on a visit to the wake of the policemen killed by an ambush by Maoist rebels in Negros Oriental.

“All these years, you are in another country. A foreign government is spending money and feeding you while your men, the NPA (New People’s Army) are dying. You are a coward. What kind of a leader is that?” he added, referring to the communist armed wing listed by the US as a terrorist organization.

Sison, 78, has been in self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987 and serves as the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the Communist Party's political arm.

The communist leader said that the president could not dictate to him the battlefield and the types of battle he would engage in.

“These cannot be dictated by Duterte who hopes vainly that the US and European intelligence would tip him off as soon I leave The Netherlands for the Philippines,” Sison said.

The way Duterte talks shows that is averse to peace negotiations with the NDFP, he said, adding that the president should allow his peace panel to negotiate and forge an agreement on social, economic and political reforms which will pave the way for peace.

“At any rate, I must remind Duterte that we are well past the age of retirement in the NPA and AFP,” Sison said.

Continuing word war

The president and Sison have been engaged in a word war in recent days following the government’s claim that NPA rebels were continuous in their attacks on security personnel despite the peace negotiations.

Just last week, a convoy of presidential guards was attacked by suspected NPA fighters, resulting in the death of a militiaman and injury of several Presidential Security Group personnel.

The president has already suspended the peace talks aimed at ending the decades-old communist rebellion in the Philippines.

Since then, Duterte and Sison have engaged in a spicy exchange of words, with the president telling the communist leader to kill himself and spare a foreign government of further expenses.

The Philippine leader also claimed that Sison had colon cancer, which the communist leader has denied.