Vice Mayor Duterte hits CPP over 'mini-dictator' tag

MANILA, Philippines — Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte has defended his sister, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, against criticism from the Communist Party of the Philippines, which he said is fighting for a "dying cause".

In a statement, Vice Mayor Duterte criticized the CPP for calling the mayor a “mini-dictator ” for releasing security guidelines the day after their father, President Rodrigo Duterte, declared martial law across Mindanao.

“Mini dictator? Really, Communist Party of the Philippines?,” the vice mayor said.

“The reference you made revealed that you are painfully scrambling for sense, reason, and significance as it showed that the CPP, the NPA (New People's Army), and all organizations allied with it, are among the enemies of peace, the enemies of the government, and the enemies of the people,” he said.

On Thursday, the CPP labeled Sara a “mini-dictator for allegedly taking advantage of the martial law declaration “by coming up with a long-list of anti-democratic measures which seeks to restrict that people’s freedoms, particularly their right to assemble, to express their grievance and seek redress.” The party likened Sara to her father whom it said wanted to prohibit acts that challenge their “authority and power.”

Vice Mayor Duterte, however, said his sister only wants to protect Davao City and the Dabawenyos from the threats posed by terrorism.

“Mayor Inday Sara is a mini dictator because she showed strength and political will to confront the dangers that terror groups like Maute and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army bring to the public?” Paolo told the CPP.

There are no known links between the Maute group and the CPP-NPA, which earlier this week called the Islamic State-inspired group "a bandit group whose leaders have known links with military officials."

“You call her mini dictator because she has no respect for you or to your dying cause as she refuses to be intimidated, harassed, or bullied by you, by the NPAs, and by your front organizations?” he added.

President Duterte, who has said that he is the first leftist president of the Philippines, had a working relationship with the CPP-NPA while mayor of Davao City. In the past, he has negotiated the release of soldiers and police officers captured by the NPA, which considers them prisoners of war.

The Duterte administration also restarted peace talks with the CPP-NPA through the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. Those talks, however, broke down in February after the NPA canceled a ceasefire, citing the government's failure to release political prisoners and what it called encroachment into villages in its territories.  

Talks began after clashes between the NPA and the military but were announced suspended on Saturday after the CPP urged the NPA to step up attacks in protest of martial law. The government, which said that martial law was meant to address terrorists groups like the Islamic State-inspired Maute and Abu Sayyaf, said that it was not going after the NPA.

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The president's son also slammed the CPP for ordering the NPA to launch offensives against the government while the Marawi crisis is raging. He said the CPP directive exposes their “natural opportunistic tendencies to ally with the enemies of the state” to overthrow the government and seize power.

The CPP and NPA believes in an armed revolution to free the Philippines from imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism — the use of government resources and structures by the ruling class to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of the people. Through negotiations, it has also been pushing for an agreement on social economic reforms that panels believe will lead to an end to more than four decades of fighting.

READ: Deal on socio-economic reforms needed to end hostilities with NPA 

Vice Mayor Duterte taunted the party for its supposed inaction in improving the lives of the Filipinos. He said the CPP-NPA can no longer conceal its real intentions with "the usual sermon about patriotism, heart for the poor and liberation" as he called on the party to stop it moves, which he said are inappropriate.

“You call Mayor Inday a mini dictator in an apparent attempt to gloss over your image of being the defender of freedom and the oppressed. But what, really, have you done for the poor and the oppressed other than to exacerbate their misery?

“Every single time you detonate a bomb, attack an establishment, burn construction equipment, murder peasants and tribal leaders, abduct soldiers, or conduct extortion activities, you are denying the people the opportunity to dream, to work without fear, and welcome and embrace development that truly liberate them from their miserable conditions,” he said.

Davao City Mayor Carpio  has yet to comment on the CPP ‘s remark but previously called the NPA “stupid and bumbling idiots” when it labeled her a hypocrite after she condemned the rebels’ attack on Lapanday Food Corp. in the city while the country was hosting a regional summit for the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The group said the mayor's husband is legal counsel for Lapanday, indicating a conflict of interest.