MANILA, Philippines — The Department of National Defense on Saturday said the Philippines was "all the better" after the death of Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison as it called on rebels in the longest-running insurgency in Asia to surrender.
In a statement to media on Saturday, the defense department called Sison "the greatest stumbling block to peace." The New People's Army has been in clashes with government since 1969, in what rebels say is a "people's war" against factors like foreign meddling, feudal land relations and the elites' use of the law for profit that has kept many Filipinos poor.
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"The death of Jose Maria Sison is but a symbol of the crumbling hierarchy of the [Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines], which he founded to violently put himself in power," the DND also said.
"His death deprived the Filipino people of the opportunity to bring this fugitive to justice under our country's laws," it said of Sison, who died in the Netherlands, where he had been staying since the late 1980s.
"We call on the remaining few believers, who have unwittingly turned themselves into the enemy of the people, still blinded by Sison's duplicitous and failed promises, to turn their backs on the violent and false ideology of the CPP-NPA-NDF," the defense department also said.
The government has abandoned peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF and has opted for "localized" efforts to convince communist rebels to surrender in exchange for livelihood and financial assistance. The CPP has said these efforts do not address the root causes of the decades-old conflict.
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"A new era without Jose Maria Sison dawns for the Philippines, and we will all be the better for it. The greatest stumbling block of peace for the Philippines is gone; let us now give peace a chance," the defense department said.
The CPP, in announcing Sison's death earlier Saturday, said that "even as we mourn, we vow to continue to give all our strength and determination to carry the revolution forward guided by the memory and teachings of the people's beloved Ka Joma."
Sison, who helped found the CPP and the NPA, was chief political analyst of the NDF — the group that represented rebels at peace talks — when he died.
Call for reforms, peace talks
In a separate statement on Saturday, the Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives expressed condolences to Sison's family, friends, and comrades and called the former professor "a patriot and revolutionary who stood with the Filipino people against oppression, exploitation, and fascism."
It also called for a resumption peace talks between the government and the CPP-NPA-NDF, saying "genuine socio-economic and political reforms" for social justice should be implemented in the Philippines.
The bloc, which has three seats at the House in the 19th Congress, claimed that Sison's call for armed resolution resonates because "government has failed to address the social injustice that drives our people to take up arms."
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