Joma Sison’s death ends ‘greatest stumbling block’ to peace –DND

With the death of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison, the “greatest stumbling block of peace is gone,” the Department of National Defense said on Saturday.

“A new era without Jose Maria Sison dawns for the Philippines, and we will all be the better for it. The greatest stumbling block of peace for the Philippines is gone; let us now give peace a chance,” the DND said in a statement.

Sison passed away at around 8:40 p.m. (Philippine time) after two weeks of confinement in the hospital, CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the DND said Sison’s death was a “symbol of the crumbling hierarchy of the CPP-NPA-NDF,” adding that he founded it “to violently put himself in power.”

“His death deprived the Filipino people of the opportunity to bring this fugitive to justice under our country's laws. Sison was responsible for the deaths of thousands of our countrymen. Innocent civilians, soldiers, police, child and youth combatants died because of his bidding,” the department said.

“We call on the remaining few believers, who have unwittingly turned themselves into the enemy of the people, still blinded by Sison's duplicitous and failed promises, to turn their backs on the violent and false ideology of the CPP-NPA-NDF.”

The DND added that five decades of aggression against the state and the Filipino people had led to nothing but destruction and strife for thousands of Filipinos.

Sison had been in self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987.

Sison, who was an activist, founded the leftist revolutionary organization CPP in December 1968.

The CPP, along with its armed wing New People’s Army (NPA) and political arm National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), has been waging an insurgency rebellion against the Philippine government for over five decades. — DVM, GMA Integrated News