Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison — who has been in exile in The Netherlands since 1987 — sees the possibility of a ceasefire between Communist rebels and a Rodrigo Duterte government.
“I will come home as soon as there is a sure basis for the ceasefire and the resumption of peace talks. I might even come home for a visit as early as June to witness the oath-taking of Duterte, if he wins or if he is not cheated,” Sison told ABS-CBN News in an online interview.
“Sison’s statement comes after the New People’s Army (NPA) handed over five policemen to Duterte on Tue, Apr 26, nine days after the cops were abducted,” reports Thea Alberto-Masakayan on ABS-CBNnews.com.
Sison explained his ties to Duterte, saying, “We have good vibes because he was my student in Political Thought at the Lyceum of the Philippines.” This was before martial law was declared in 1972.
Sison also claimed the presidential candidate from Davao promised to set a meeting “if he wins” and that they also agreed that a ceasefire can happen even while “comprehensive agreements on social, economic, and political reforms are being worked out.”
Sison had also entertained the possibility of ceasefire under President Noynoy Aquino. In a Dec 2014 report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Sison said, “My meeting with the President can still happen if there is already a substantive agreement or if the meeting can be inspiring, as a confidence-building measure.”
The Inquirer report had noted: “The idea of having a meeting between the President and Sison was initially hatched in 2012, after the successful meeting of the Chief Executive with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief Murad Ebrahim in August 2011 in Tokyo. It was a secret meeting, which was ultimately described by the MILF as a ‘great leap forward’ in resuming the then stalled peace negotiations between the government and the then Moro secessionist group.”
