Sison: Duterte likely to be ousted by mid-2019
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte would likely be ousted rather than ending the decades-long insurgency of communist rebels, exiled Communist Party of the Philippines founding chair Jose Maria "Joma" Sison said.
Sison made this statement in reaction to Duterte's latest remarks that the communist movement will be over by next year.
"It is more likely that Duterte would be ousted from power than that he could destroy the people´s revolutionary movement by the middle of next year," Sison said Wednesday.
Sison also called Duterte "delusional" for making such claims of having destroyed the entire revolutionary movement by the middle of 2019.
The CPP leader pointed out that the Duterte government is "bankrupt and weakened by bureaucratic and military corruption, excessive military and police spending, counterproductive projects, mounting debt burden and budgetary and trade deficits."
"The people consider Duterte a clown who imagines that he has all the money to give jobs and houses to the millions of people who participate in the revolutionary movement," Sison said.
In a speech before state troops at Camp Melchor F. Dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela, Duterte said the government is "winning" the war against communist rebels.
The president noted that there have been plenty of surrenderees, who have also given up their weapons.
"I think, God forbid, this will be over by about the second quarter of next year," Duterte said.
The president had accused communist rebels of conniving with the Liberal Party and the camp of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV to overthrow him. All three parties have denied such claims.
In a one-on-one interview with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo last week, Duterte claimed a sympathetic foreign government provided him recorded conversations.
“It might be loose conspiracy but they are into it, sabay-sabay sila,” Duterte said.
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