The government’s petition to officially tag communist rebels as terrorists, if approved, would pave the way for President Rodrigo Duterte to be hailed as a “highly centralized presidential power, a dictator lording over his fellow regional tyrants,” Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Joma Sison said.
This, after the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a petition seeking to formally label more than 600 people as terrorists, including Sison.
In an interview with ANC, Sison said Duterte is “overreaching” for he only wants to “scapegoat the CPP and NPA so that he can expand martial from Mindanao to nationwide, and to shift the government to a pseudo federal Constitution, because this can actually install him as a highly centralized Presidential power a dictator lording over his fellow regional tyrants.”
Sison warned that the communist rebels will have to fight the president “single-mindedly with no more hesitation” if he is determined “to destroy the revolutionary movement as he has announced.”
Sison also took a swipe at Duterte’s capabilities, stressing how inferior he is when compared to strongman Ferdinand Marcos as the latter had “some amount of sophistication, could last long, and could be more deceiving.”