By Gabriela Baron
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Chief Political Consultant Joma Sison branded the warrant of arrest issued against him and 37 other members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as "fabricated", and noted that the list even included the names of those who were in prison and already dead.
NDFP Chief Political Consultat Joma Sison (Facebook / MANILA BULLETIN)
According to Sison, the list of accused was "obviously fabricated" because it included the names of those in prison at the time of the alleged Inopacan Massacre in Leyte.
"The list of the accused is utterly stupid and obviously fabricated. It includes the names of those in prison at the time of the alleged massacre. It also includes those who are already dead for various health reasons as well as those disappeared by the reactionary government," he added.
He continued by saying that, at the time the "fake" Inopacan massacre was supposed to have happened, he was still "under maximum security detention by the Marcos regime".
"I was not in any position then to go over the head of the leadership of the CPP and revolutionary movement,"
The murder case was filed in 2006 after the skeletal remains of 67 victims were exhumed from graves in Subang Daku village in Inopacan, Leyte.
"The long drawn Inopacan case of 'walking skeletons' is a cruel joke at the expense of patriotic and progressive activists. The bones were collected by General (Hermogenes) Esperon from various cemeteries during the time of Arroyo in order to make his 'legal offensive' and persecute the opponents of the Arroyo regime," he said.
Esperon is currently the National Security Adviser of President Duterte.
Sison ended saying that the news splash about the "fake" murder charge was intended to "draw away public attention from the scandalous release of 2,000 criminals convinced of drug trading, murder, rape, and other heinous crimes".
The arrest warrant was issued five days before the surviving families commemorated the Inopacan massacre in Leyte on September 2.
READ MORE: Court orders arrest of Joma, 37 others