Duterte threatens to slap Joma if they meet

MANILA, Philippines — Let’s meet and I will slap you.

This was President Duterte’s message yesterday to Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison, days after saying he was ready for a one-on-one with the rebel leader.

Duterte said Sison, his former professor in political thought at the Lyceum of the Philippines University, is “desperate” because rebel leaders are getting old and “there is no second echelon” in their organization.

“Kita tayo, Sison. Sampalin kita. Oo walay binuang (Let’s see each other, Sison. I will slap you. Yes, I am not joking),” Duterte said during the launch of an agriculture project for wounded soldiers in Compostela Valley.

The President issued the remark a week after he expressed openness to meet with Sison in private to discuss the collapsed peace talks between the government and communists. He earlier scrapped the negotiations after the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the communist rebels, launched a series of attacks that harmed civilians.

Aside from this, he also issued a proclamation classifying the NPA and the CPP as “terrorist organizations.”

He blamed the rebels for the termination of the talks, noting that the communists are pushing for a coalition government—a setup he described as unconstitutional because it would force him to “share” the country’s sovereignty.

Duterte ordered the armed forces to “destroy the NPA,” noting that Sison’s followers continue to dwindle and that the communist organization now relies mainly on foreign funds to operate.

He also taunted Left for losing many of its intellectual members as only the older ones have remained.

“Filipinos will remain poor as long as there is NPA. You think you are god... You just kill people at whim,” he said.

Duterte said the communist rebels are wrong in trying to scare him about not pursuing the peace talks as he stands pat on his position not to give in to a coalition government that the leftists are demanding.

He claimed the communists continue to commit atrocities despite his efforts to reach out to them, giving them the chance to talk peace and even appointing some so-called progressive personalities to positions in government.

Among the perceived former radicals appointed to state posts were former agrarian reform secretary Rafael Mariano, former social welfare secretary Judy Taguiwalo, National Anti-Poverty Commission lead convenor Liza Maza, labor undersecretary Joel Maglunsod and Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor chairman Terry Ridon.

Mariano’s and Taguiwalo’s appointments were rejected by the Commission on Appointments while Ridon was dismissed over alleged junkets.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Malacañang also lambasted Sison for urging the Filipino youth to launch anti-government protests similar to those staged during the First Quarter Storm of 1970. The First Quarter Storm protest refers to the mass demonstrations against the administration of former president Ferdinand Marcos.

“We don’t attach too much importance to Joma Sison. I hope he has enough grandchildren to heed this call. The problem with Joma Sison is he stuck in history. He never moved beyond the first quarter storm,” Roque said in a press briefing. – With Alexis Romero