Return of Joma Sison now subject of talks

MANILA, Philippines - Exiled communist leader Jose Ma. Sison is reportedly returning home in line with government efforts to end the decades-old communist rebellion, military insiders said yesterday.

A military insider said the President has been convinced.

“He’s been won over by the communists in the guise of running after GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo).”

Several middle-grade and senior members of the uniformed services said moves are in the works to integrate qualified New People’s Army (NPA) rebels into the military, using the pattern used by the government in ending the secessionist movement of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Mindanao.

Military sources, who have requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that if this NPA integration plan pushes through, this would bring more problems than solutions to the worsening peace and order situation.

Military-backed Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANA) Rep. Pastor Alcover said Sison is coming home upon the invitation of the Aquino administration.

“Our cherished freedoms and democratic life (are) definitely fading out and about to be lost, and the situation is getting murky in cadence with the developing political landscape of the country,” he said.

Alcover said a Cabinet level position is awaiting Sison.

“If this is true then our previous information that there are people in Malacañang who are so engrossed in seeing to it that the power of government is shared by and between the constitutionally mandated officials of the government and the Jose Ma. Sison-led Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) must be given serious concern by all,” he said.

Now based in the Netherlands, Sison, who is reportedly sick, is allegedly hurrying up the CPP-NPA-NDF “infiltration” program to penetrate key government offices by 2012.

Sison is coming home within this year, Alcover said, citing his source in Malacañang.