By Antonio Colina IV
DAVAO CITY – Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison welcomes the assurance of safety of President Rodrigo Duterte so that he can finally be home after three decades of seeking asylum in the Netherlands.
NDFP Chief Political Consultant and CPP Founding Chairman Jose Maria Sison (left), with NDFP peace panel members Concha Araneta (second from right) and Benito Tiamzon, after meeting the media at the Radisson Blu Palace Hotel in Noordwijk ann-zee, The Netherlands. (Rocky Nazareno / MANILA BULLETIN)
Sison, Duterte’s former professor in Political Thought, said in a statement on Thursday that he will return to the Philippines after the signing of the Interim Peace Agreement, which is set for June 2018, and the subsequent approval of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) by the government (GRP) and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace negotiating panels either in July or August.
He said it’s better to have an assurance of safety from the President so that they can hold a dialogue and agree on how they can serve the interest of the Filipinos, especially the “toiling masses of workers and peasants through the peace negotiations and cooperation under the principles of national sovereignty, democracy and social justice.”
During the Presidential Security Group (PSG) Change of Command Ceremony at the PSG Grandstand, Malacañang Park on Wednesday, Duterte gave his former professor “his word of honor” that he should not worry about his safety and that he would not have him killed when he comes home.
“I may call on, maybe, members of his command to protect him. I have provided a small window of 60 days. And if you come home, do not worry about being killed. I will not do that,” he said.
He explained that he understands the communist leader’s ambivalence and that he knows how he feels as they both lost men to armed encounters.
The fifth round of GRP-NDFP peace talks was aborted for the second time just two days before it was to resume on November 25 to 27, 2017, with Proclamation 360 of President Rodrigo R. Duterte “for lack of sincerity,” following an NPA ambush on November 9, 2017 that killed a four-month old Walysha Manchorao, and similar incidents.
The President subsequently signed Proclamation 374, designating the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, New People’s Army, as terrorist organizations.
The President said Sison is free to leave the country “unhampered, unfettered, unbridled” if the talks would turn out unsuccessful.
“But this time, sabi ko nga, sabihin ko sa kanya, ‘please, if it is unsuccessful, please go home.’ Ihatid ko siya sa airport. Walang Aquino style na patayan, na barilin ko sa likod (I bring him to the airport myself. No Aquino-style murder, shot from behind),” he said.
Duterte reiterated that he will not agree on a coalition government with the communists.
“Come home and talk, and as long as you do not ask (for) a coalition government, which I cannot give and will never give, you can come home and talk to me and the others, and maybe in the fullness of God’s time we can achieve peace in our land,” he said.
Read more: Duterte assures Sison: No assassination like Aquino