COMMUNIST party founder Jose Maria “Joma” said witch hunts being conducted by government against “social activists” is among various reasons President Duterte will not be able to end the communist armed rebellion.
“Many social activists who are in danger of arrest or murder go underground and join the armed revolution. They are welcomed by the revolutionary forces and people in the countryside who need more personnel for military and civil tasks,” said Sison who has been on a self-exile in the Netherlands since the late 80s.
Sison made the statement after Duterte told the public to expect “a little trouble” in the coming months as he has renewed his order to the military and the police to end the communist insurgency.
Duterte has said it would be a monumental failure if the communists and terrorist groups would not be defeated before his term ends in 2022. Military estimates place the strength of the New People’s Army’s, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, at 3,500.
Sison said anti-communist witch hunts and the “constant threats and violent attacks” against “patriotic and progressive organizations” in town centers “are generating widespread resistance.”
He said these also induce organizations and other democratic entities “to fight back in defense of their democratic rights.”
Other reasons listed by Sison were “crisis of the world capitalist system” which he said is at its “sharpest” in Philippines and other semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries; “mass murder and other gross crimes with impunity”; militarization in government which he said has resulted in wastage of public funds; economy that is characterized by underdevelopment, misallocation of resources, mass unemployment, and widespread poverty; the communist movements “correct ideological, political and organizational lines”; the communist party’s leading and providing the NPA “with the strategy and tactics of protracted people’s war for fighting the enemies of the people”; the “relatively stronger forces” of the NPA; the NPA’s determination “to secure the people” from government forces; and the peasant masses joining the armed struggle due to “brutal enemy campaigns.”
“While the Duterte tyranny persists, the armed revolution will grow in strength and advance,” said Sison.
Duterte revived government peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA-National Democratic Front of the Philippines shortly after he became president in 2016. He ended the formal peace negotiations in 2018 because of, among other reasons, the NPA’s continued attacks on government forces.