QUEZON CITY, Philippines (Eagle News) — Founding Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines Jose Maria Sison accused President Rodrigo Duterte of being “mentally unfit” to lead the country, and even called for his replacement.
Sison ranted and called the President’s knowledge of the peace talks shallow and defective, and claimed Duterte “sabotaged” the peace talks.
But the Philippine government stressed that it was the communist leadership and its armed group, the New People’s Army, which had not shown its “sincerity and commitment” in the peace talks, citing the many violations committed by communist rebels when they attacked government forces even during the existence of a ceasefire during the peace talks. Add to this the many crimes committed against businessmen, and the attacks even on civilians that resulted in the killing of 70 people, including a four-month old baby.
Sison, on the other hand, claimed it was the President who violated the mutual agreement on the talks.
“He (Duterte) violated the mutual agreement that talks would be discreet until there would be good news to announce at the end of the fifth or sixth round of formal talks. In the course of his rants, Duterte unwittingly exposed his scarce, shallow and defective knowledge of the peace process,” Sison said.
He cited the alleged “recent incidents in the armed conflict” which Duterte allegedly used as “false basis for slandering the revolutionary forces and threatening the termination of the peace negotiations and the outlawing of the revolutionary forces and legal democratic forces as terrorists.”
“There are symptoms that Duterte is mentally unfit to handle the complexities of the affairs of his state and the peace process between the GRP and NDFP. GRP officials in his Cabinet and the reactionary armed forces should consider whether he is mentally fit for his office or needs to be replaced in accordance with their 1987 Constitution,” Sison said in a statement.
The President on Thursday formally announced the termination of peace talks and meetings with the communists through Proclamation No. 360.
Commenting on Sison’s statement, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said, “Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.”
“The President, we have to underscore, terminated the peace talks after their members had failed to show their sincerity and commitment in pursuing genuine and meaningful peaceful negotiations with their continuous acts of violence and atrocities,” Roque said.
