Joma Sison seriously ill – security adviser

MANILA, Philippines — Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison is sick and dying.

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. bared this yesterday as he stressed the government is not totally closing its doors to the possible resumption of peace negotiations with the communist rebels.

“Look at his face, isn’t he sick? That is expected, but let me not go into the details… but he is really ill,” Esperon told reporters on the sidelines of a forum held in a restaurant in Quezon City.

Esperon said with or without Sison around, the government is still exerting all efforts in achieving a peaceful settlement of the communist insurgency problem.

He said the government is reviewing all agreements made with the communists in the previous peace talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the umbrella organization representing the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).

The review of the agreements is meant to look into what could be beneficial to the government and the people, Esperon said.

Among the agreements being reviewed are the Joint Security and Immunity Guarantee (JASIG), Hague Declaration and Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

Esperon said President Duterte wanted to review the provisions of these agreements as it now appeared that CPP-NPA-NDF have been conveniently using them to further their own agenda of toppling the government.

“As of now, the peace talks are terminated but we are not closing the door for future negotiations, the reason why we are reviewing all these previous agreements forged in past peace negotiations,” Esperon said.

He said CARHRIHL is supposed to protect civilians from conflicts but it turned out people are getting killed or hurt by attacks from the NPA.

He cited the NPA’s use of landmines in their attacks, which he said was a clear violation of the agreement.

In absence of the formal resumption of the peace talks, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is pushing for localized peace talks with the NPA in various areas of the country.

Sison strongly opposed this approach, declaring it an old tactic that will eventually fail.

The military, however, believes Sison and his comrades abroad are opposed to local talks on fears that this will sideline them.