Lt. General Eduardo Año, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff (Zea Io Ming C. Capistrano/davaotoday.com)
MANILA, Philippines – Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Eduardo Año said the claim of Communist Party of the Philippines founding chair Prof. Jose Maria Sison that the country has two governments is untrue.
“Mr. Sison asserts that there (are) two governments in the Philippines—one being his so-called ‘revolutionary government’ led by the Communist Party of the Philippines. That’s untrue,” Año said in a statement released on Wednesday.
He asserted the country has only one government under the leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte who was elected by 16.6 million Filipinos last year.
In a statement on Monday, July 24, Sison said it is time for Duterte to “wake up to the fact that there are already two governments in the Philippines, one is the reactionary government of big compradors and landlords headed by him and the other is the revolutionary government of workers and peasants led by the CPP.”
The CPP founding chair’s statement was in response to Duterte’s tirades against him and the revolutionary movement.
In the same statement on Monday, Sison said the former regime of Ferdinand Marcos tried to finish off the revolutionary forces with martial law and other brutal measures but failed.
Instead, Sison added, the revolutionary forces have grown in strength and spread in the whole country.
“Duterte should not belittle the revolutionary forces. These will outlast him and grow even stronger in the years ahead. He can belittle the revolutionary forces only at great risk to his fleeting regime and to the entire ruling system of big compradors and landlords,” Sison pointed out.
But Año believes the CPP and its armed-wing, the NPA failed and have detached from reality – one of the proof is the strong support of the people to the administration of Duterte as shown in the high rating it gained in recent Social Weather Station survey.
Año also criticized Sison and the movement for blaming the AFP for the collapse of the peace negotiations.
“Mr. Sison should manifest his leadership and control of the CPP-NPA-NDF (National Democratic Front) and rally them into halting the extortion and the attacks on soldiers that are on peace and development endeavors and to show their group’s sincerity to and trustworthiness for the peace talks,” Año said.
Sison also indicated on Monday that Duterte’s notion of wasting time talking with the NDFP only showed he is “not interested in peace negotiations concerning social, economic and political reforms to lay the basis for a just and lasting peace.”
“He is only interested in demanding the surrender of the revolutionary movement through a protracted and indefinite kind of ceasefire ahead of any comprehensive agreement on reforms,” Sison added. (davaotoday.com)
