Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison (Zea Io Ming C. Capistrano/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines— Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison said he has nothing to do with the group called the Patriotic and Democratic Movement (PADEM) that is calling for the ouster of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
This comes after a cybersecurity expert of the Armed Forces of the Philippines accused Jon Bustamante of Pinoy Abroad, an Amsterstam-based publication of overseas Filipino contract workers, to be the man behind PADEM composed of a group of military and police officials.
AFP said that Bustamante has ties with CPP founder Jose Maria Sison. But Sison denied such allegation branding it as a “silly” speculation.
Sison also tagged AFP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla as a “psywar expert” including the AFP’s cybersecurity expert.
“[They] are engaged in pure speculation and are barking up a wrong tree by accusing Jon Bustamante of Pinoy Abrod, an Amsterstam-based publication of overseas Filipino contract workers as the one-man originator of the call of the Patriotic and Democratic Movement (PADEM) for the ouster of Rodrigo R. Duterte,” he said.
The CPP founder pointed out that Bustamante received the PADEM’s call for Duterte’s ouster from Philippines and the US and not from The Netherlands.
This is contrary to AFP’s claim that it was Bustamante who uploaded PADEM’s condemnation statements in Utrecht-based social domain wecadre@yahoo.com.
“It did not originate from Bustamante. I received my copy via Facebook friends in the Philippines and the US before I saw the copy appearing in Pinoy Abroad,” said Sison.
Sison said he decided to post the PADEM’s statements on his Facebook account “after examining the face value and validity of the ten condemnations of Duterte and his regime.”
“I became more convinced of the authenticity when Dr. Dante Simbulan called on his fellow PMAyers to join PADEM,” he added.
In its statement on Monday, PADEM alleged that Duterte committed “gross crimes in betrayal of public trusts and in violation of national sovereignty and democratic rights of the the Filipino people.”
The group also scored the President’s mishandling of Marawi crisis, the issue of West Philippine Sea, the bloody war on drugs, and extrajudicial killings.(davaotoday.com)
