Joma Sison counters several major points in Duterte 3rd SONA

“He has not dared to file a diplomatic protest against the Chinese encroachment on and militarization of the West Philippine Sea with the use of artificial islands,” Sison claimed. (File Photo by Briant de los Santos via Joma Sison/Facebook)

Communist Party of the Philippines’s (CPP’s) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison slammed President Rodrigo Duterte’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA), saying that the latter’s speech does not show the country’s “true” state.

“As a whole, Duterte´s State of the Nation address does not present the true state of the nation. It shows no remorse for his glaring nonfulfillment of electoral promises and his gross aggravation of the problems that afflict the people,” Sison said in a statement issued on Tuesday, July 24.

The CPP leader said Duterte was a “true to form as a tyrant” when he lashed out against international and local human rights advocates who criticized his drug war and that this campaign would never be sidelined under his regime.

“He promotes the worst of criminality by turning police officers into kidnappers and murderers and corrupting them with rewards of cash and promotions in rank,” he said.

Sison also casts doubt on the seriousness of Duterte’s anti-corruption campaign, describing the President’s closest allies — Marcoses, Arroyos, and Estradas — as “biggest plunderers.”

He stressed that these allies have been caught stealing people’s money, yet most of them go scot-free and when dismissed from office, they will be later on reassigned to another position.

As for Marawi, Sison said it was also Duterte who ordered the city’s destruction and “refused to heed the advice of the Sultan and leading families of the city to negotiate with the Maute group and Abu Sayaff group.”

“He used the siege of Marawi to proclaim Mindanao-wide martial law in order to attack other Bangsamoro, Lumad and Christian communities and grab the land for foreign and oligarchic interests in mining, plantations and logging,” the CPP leader said.

“Now, he makes a new false promise to fulfill the promise of Mindanao with public funds which have not at all flowed for the urgent and adequate reconstruction and rehabilitation of Marawi City,” he continued.

Sison also accused the President of “traitorously selling out” the Philippines’ sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea (WPS) to Beijing and putting the country into a dept trap in line with the overpriced infrastructure projects.

“He has not dared to file a diplomatic protest against the Chinese encroachment on and militarization of the West Philippine Sea with the use of artificial islands,” Sison claimed.

Sison also noticed that Duterte did not mention solutions on the problems of underdevelopment, mass poverty, unemployment, and increasing prices of commodities and services, instead he just “merely repeats a series of generalized promises” such as looking after the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), abolishing contractualization, and establishing the Coconut Farmers Trust Fund.

Apart from these, Sison said, Duterte did not also talk about the Proclamation 360m which formally terminates peace negotiations with communists, in his SONA.

“He does not want to address the roots of the armed conflict through comprehensive agreements on social, economic and political reforms in order to lay the basis for a just and lasting peace,” Sison explained.

“It is deliberately escalating the armed conflict in order to scapegoat the revolutionaries for his vile scheme of establishing a fascist dictatorship,” he added.

The 73-year-old President, who is known to deliver lengthy speeches as he strayed away from the speech prepared for him, delivered his shortest SONA on Monday which lasted less than an hour compared to his first two speeches

His first SONA in 2016 lasted for about an hour and a half, while his second SONA in 2017 took two hours to deliver.

However, the third SONA was delayed for over an hour because of the sudden change in leadership at the House of Representatives.