Proud mentor Joma Sison says Duterte offering best chance at peace

President Rodrigo Duterte is offering the best chance at peace between the government and the communist movement, National Democratic Front chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said on Monday.

Speaking at the joint press conference of the GPH and NDF peace panels in Oslo, the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines said he was proud that Duterte was his former student at the Lyceum of the Philippines.

"Even as President Duterte has shifted from expressing a desire for a coalition government with the CPP to a preference for an inclusive government of the left, middle, and right, he offers more hope for the advance and success of the peace negotiations than previous presidents and regime," Sison said.

"I am proud to say that President Duterte was my student in political science at the Lyceum of the Philippines when I was still a young professorial lecturer.  He became a member of the Kabataang Makabayan of which I was the national chairman," he added.

Sison described the youth organization that Duterte joined as one that "vowed to continue the unfinished revolution that was started by Andres Bonifacio."

"This meant upholding, defending and advancing the national and democratic rights of the Filipino people," Sison said.

Just weeks before the formal resumption of the peace talks in Norway, Sison and Duterte exchanged harsh words after the New People's Army attacked militiamen in Davao del Norte.

The attack came two days after Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire during his State of the Nation Address on July 25.

Duterte lifted the ceasefire several days later after the CPP-NPA failed to declare a reciprocal ceasefire before the president's deadline lapsed. —NB, GMA News