MANILA, Philippines — National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon is an active purveyor of fake news and a pathological liar for claiming that Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison is seriously ill.
Fidel Agcaoili, peace panel chairman of the National Democratic Front (NDF), issued the statement Saturday disputing the claims made by Esperon.
“Professor Sison is very well and has fully recovered from his arthritis last year,” Agcaoili said.
He said Sison “is up and about, conducting interviews here and there with journalists, student scholars, academics and foreign solidarity friends.”
“His mind remains sharp as ever and his analysis of political situations as incisive, brilliant and comprehensive as before,” Agcaoili said.
On the other hand, Esperon remains a pathological liar, Agcaoili said.
Agcaoili cited that in 2006, Esperon, as Armed Forces chief, claimed the extrajudicial killings of activists were happening because of “internal purges” of the communist rebels.
Esperon even produced a document purportedly seized from a New People’s Army (NPA) camp as evidence.
“His (Esperon) allegation was dismissed by Philip Alston, then UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, as especially unconvincing and the document presented as bearing all the hallmarks of a fabrication and cannot be taken as evidence of anything other than disinformation,” Agcaoili said. –With Gilbert Bayoran