Sison singing old tunes with no takers: Palace

Sison claimed that Duterte used the country’s illegal drug problem as a means to “deceive” voters to elect him into presidency in 2016. (File Photo: Jose Maria Sison/Facebook)

MANILA — Malacañang on Tuesday described the rant of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chair Jose Maria Sison, who described President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s drug war as fake, as “an old tune with no takers.”

“Sison’s latest rant that the war on drugs is fake and that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is using the drug issue to deceive many of those who voted for him in 2016 and to impress the public that he is a dictator and tyrant is an old tune he has been singing with no takers,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

“It is like an echo in the wind reverberating across the vision of a failed revolutionary who is racing against time to find his cuckoo’s nest,” he added.

Panelo earlier called Sison’s rant as “psychologically challenged”.

He further said Sison’s remarks are “undeserving” of a response from the government.

“I think twice already, about his rants — apart from saying they are psychology-challenged, they do not deserve a response from this government,” Panelo said.

Sison claimed thst Duterte used the country’s illegal drug problem as a means to “deceive” voters to elect him into presidency in 2016.

The revolutionary leader has also claimed that majority of the President’s senatorial bets, including his former aide Christopher “Bong” Go, former Philippine National Police and Bureau of Corrections chief Ronald dela Rosa, and Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos are bound to lose in the mid-term elections.

Both Panelo and the President himself has repeatedly called Sison a “failed revolutionary” for losing his influence among his own men in the communist movement.

The CPP-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.