Vice President Sara Duterte issued a terse straightforward statement on the death of Jose Maria Sison, founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines, who passed away on Friday, December 16, 2022 after two weeks of confinement in the hospital. He was 83.
“May God have mercy on his soul,” she said.
The passing of Sison was confirmed by CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena.
Sison died exactly 10 days before the 54th founding anniversary of CPP on December 26, 2022.
It can be recalled that the vice president had engaged in a social media word war with Sison.
In 2018, the vice president who was then the mayor of Davao City reacted to Sison’s Facebook post on the former president’s irrational state of health.
“My guess is, at the rate that he or his caretaker is unraveling, he will soon say PRD is not human but an alien in the form of Rodrigo Duterte. His recent Facebook posts about the dying PRD is not rational and napaisip ako kung siya ba ang nagpost or baka caretaker nalang ni Joma,” she said in a statement.
Duterte also shared that Sison sent her years ago chocolates and a note containing a message that was “rational and pleasant” unlike his recent social media posts claiming that her father had lapsed into coma.
The vice president’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, together with the military and police, tagged Sison, who lived in exile in the Netherlands, and the communist rebels as terrorists.
Last year, Duterte even challenged Sison to come home to the Philippines for a one-on-one talk ahead of the expected resumption of formal peace negotiations. Duterte made this statement on Christmas Eve as they talked about the armed communist rebels’ alleged ceasefire violations.
Besides the Philippines, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand also listed CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization.
Meanwhile, Sison’s death stirred various reactions on social media. For his supporters, it was a sad day, however, majority of Filipinos rejoiced with his passing as they are optimistic it will also the death of the CPP-National Democratic Front (NDF) in the Philippines.
Elyne Villamor posted: “I have never wished death to anyone since I became a Christian but I can’t help but somehow rejoice at this news especially after being invited to the Red Carpet Premiere of Mamasapano two days ago. It’s high time to end this long battle of CPP-NPA-NDF vs. the Philippine government. They already caused so much damage, heartache, and future of our youth who are being brainwashed in schools, especially on the grounds of UP campuses. All evil will come to an end. Including the lives of those who lived on earth to give pain to others. God will be your judge since justice has not been served because you lived so far away, Joma Sison.”
