{"id":201621,"date":"2019-02-10T20:53:40","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T01:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=201621"},"modified":"2019-02-10T20:53:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T01:53:40","slug":"palace-to-joma-extend-hands-for-peace-rejoin-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/10\/palace-to-joma-extend-hands-for-peace-rejoin-society\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace to Joma: Extend hands for peace, rejoin society"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Secretary Salvador Panelo holds a press briefing for the Malaca\u00f1ang Press Corps (MPC) on Monday, November 26, 2018, at the New Executive Building (NEB) in Malaca\u00f1ang. (Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison should extend his hands for peace and rejoin society, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made his call after Sison slammed the offer of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to reopen peace talks, describing it as an \u201cinsult to the revolutionary movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of welcoming the President\u2019s softening of his hardline stance on no peace talks with the local communists unless it puts a stop to their collection of revolutionary taxes which is a euphemism for extortion, he considers it as an insult to them,\u201d Panelo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cSison must step down from his ivory tower and extend his hands for peace, for his own sake, for his followers, for the Filipino people, for his country he loves so well,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said Sison should also contribute his intellect and expertise in peaceful dialogues for the betterment and progress of all Filipinos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time to rejoin society. There is nothing dishonorable in accepting defeat. There is another path for change other than armed struggle. Filipinos cannot continue killing Filipinos,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He noted that it would be \u201ctragic\u201d and \u201csuch a waste\u201d for Sison to reject the President\u2019s willingness to resume peace negotiations for disagreeing with the precondition to stop the collection of revolutionary taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo miss this golden opportunity will only reduce him to a historical footnote and thrown him into the dustbin of history. That will be tragic and such a waste,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo mocked Sison\u2019s reason for refusing to stop the collection of revolutionary taxes saying he must be \u201crunning berserk with his imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Sison) claims that they cannot stop the extortion activities because its stoppage will deprive the \u2018people\u2019s government of financial resources for administration and social programs.\u2019 Oh… they have a government?\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has to wake up from his daydreaming lest he gets a nightmare that will cut short his bourgeoisie lifestyle in The Netherlands,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, described Sison and a handful of his followers as \u201cvictims of their own revolution\u201d for still hoping to overthrow the existing political order but failing to do so for over 50 years.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Duterte terminated peace talks with communist rebels following continued attacks against government troops.<\/p>\n

The United States and European Union have declared the CPP-NPA as a terror group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison should extend his hands for peace and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":191167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}