President Rodrigo Duterte’s challenge to the communists to return home and wage their war here is a “childish provocation,” said Jose Maria Sison, the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
He said they will not fall into Duterte’s trap and added Duterte had long vowed to kill him if he had the chance.
“He continues to be overeager to have the chance to kill me by challenging me to return home and wage war,” Sison said.
“I will not fall into his trap, but I merely laugh at this childish provocation that manifests his roguish or stupid kind of mentality.”
Sison made his statement after Duterte dared him to prove his leadership over the communist rebels by coming back to the Philippines and waging his war here.
“If you are the leader of a cause, go home and go to war here. Why do you keep on sitting with legs wide open scratching your b**** there in the Netherlands?” Duterte said during his visit to Cagayan de Oro.
“Grit and grime are accumulating on your b****. Why don’t you just go home?”
Duterte then bragged that he had control of the armed forces.
“I have the Air Force. Airplanes? We have plenty. I have the Navy. Do you know how many ships I have? Just choose. Army? Navy? I have plenty of ships.”
But Sison said the President is only engaged in a puerile game under the guise of hyper-masculinity by challenging him to a combat.
“Should stop boasting about his macho bravery. The two of us are already far beyond the age of combatants. The most he can do is to wear an army uniform and wobble his way to a podium in the safety of a military camp,” Sison said.
He said the country’s ground, aerial and naval weapons were all foreign-supplied and useless.
“All of these have been proven inutile against the nationwide growth and advance of the New People’s Army during the last 50 years,” Sison said.
“In due course, the people’s war will advance wave upon wave until it is time to overpower the reactionary government in the cities.”
Sison said Duterte had no control over his decision on when he would return to the country.
“It is not up to Duterte to decide when I will return home,” he said.
“I will return home either to clinch his downfall or to persuade him further to make peace after he ceases to terminate the peace negotiations and allows the GRP negotiating panel to meet its NDFP counterpart to complete and sign the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms.”
The 79-year-old Sison then urged Duterte to read his poem for the latter to understand why the CPP had thrived for 50 years in the countryside with the NPA as the main component of state power.
Duterte said he had not seen “anything good” from the decades-old communist rebellion other than “killing and destruction.”
“Good has come out of it. We suffered. I keep on buying bullets and bombs to bomb the Filipino. You just don’t know how much it hurts deep in my heart,” he said.
The President earlier suspended the peace talks with the communist rebels, citing their continuing attacks.