Duterte lambasts Joma anew: How can I not be a socialist?

FILE PHOTO/ Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison (left) and President Rodrigo Duterte (right). (Facebook photos)

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday took a swipe against his former professor and founding chairman of the Communists Party of the Philippines (CCP) Jose Maria Sison for allegedly saying the former was not a socialist.

“Kaya ito si Sison, isa ring ugok…gusto niya siya lang ang sosyalista. Ako daw, peke. Paano ‘ko hindi maging sosyalista? (For Sison, that fool, he want to be the only socialist. He said I’m fake. How can I not be a socialist?) I’m always left because migrants lang kami dito sa Mindanao (We are migrants in Mindanao),” Duterte said in a speech before policemen in Ozamiz City.

The president accused Sison of labeling others as fake leftists or socialists if they would not join the armed struggle against the government.

“Just because you are not joining the armed struggle, peke ka na (You’re fake). Ang sa kanya kasing inisip, ugok,  maging leftists ka o sosyalista ka, na kailangan sumali ka sa New People’s Army, makipag-away ka. (He thinks, that fool, you’ll be a leftist or socialist if you joined New People’s Army, you’ll fight) That’s not my style. Eh gusto mo daan natin sa pulitika lilipat kaagad ako sa partido ninyo (You like to join politics them I would jump to your party),” Duterte said.

“I do not want to kill a Filipino just because of – ayaw mo yung… Ang armed struggle ang ayaw ko diyan, hindi ko gusto. (I don’t like armed struggle, I hate it.) That’s the problem,” the president added.

He added that NPA acts like they have “the monopoly of talent in the world” and that they are only “the ones who have principles in life.”

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Sison shared a transcript of an interview where he remembered Duterte saying he was a socialist and not a communist in their Skype conference before the 2016 presidential elections.

Sison said crisis conditions in the country are ‘worsening’. He slammed Duterte for not fulfilling his promises during the campaign, saying the latter cannot solve social problems in the Philippines.

“But such fake popularity is eroding fast because crisis conditions in the Philippines are worsening. He cannot fulfill many of his big electoral campaign promises and he cannot solve the social problems because he sticks to a neo-liberal economic policy and a brutal security policy directed by pro-US military officers,” Sison said.

Duterte and Sison had been waging a word war following the failure on peace talks between the government and the communist party. Duterte expressed anger on Sison’s group for attacking government troops even members of his Presidential Security Group (PSG).