THE founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Jose Maria Sison, denied Tuesday a claim by Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque that he has already become a Dutch citizen, dismissing it as fake news.
“I have never applied for Dutch citizenship and have never been naturalized as a Dutch citizen. The legitimate mass media or any respectable person can verify this fact from the Dutch authorities in The Hague or the Dutch embassy in Manila,” Sison said in a statement.
Sison was reacting to a video posted on social media showing Roque talking to reporters and claiming that he [Sison] had already taken Dutch citizenship.
Sison said the Duterte administraton was spreading “fake news” about himself and other leftist leaders such as Teddy Casiño and Renato Reyes to divert public attention from its “monstrous crimes,” such as the extrajudicial killings in the war on drugs and the destruction of Marawi City.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, meanwhile, said it was “far-fetched” that the Armed Forces could finish off the communist rebels in Mindanao within the year martial law is in effect.
President Rodrigo Duterte had declared martial law in Mindanao to deal with the occupation of Marawi City by Maute Group terrorists. Congress gave him several extensions to the original 60-day period specified by the Constitution, including a one-year extension starting this year.
Duterte has said he would use the year to go after the communist New People’s Army as well.
“To finish the communist terrorists in one year is far-fetched. It’s a tall order and we may not be able to do it,” Lorenzana said. The goal instead was to degrade their ability to conduct large-scale attacks, he added.
He would not speculate if another extension to martial law would be required.
Also on Tuesday, the Justice department said it would reopen an investigation into an anomaly during the previous administration where firearms from the Philippine National Police were sold to the NPA.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct the new probe that had previously been investigated by the Office of the Ombudsman.
Aguirre said the reinvestigation of the reported 1,004 missing high-powered firearms was upon the order of President Duterte.
The earlier Ombudsman investigation led to the indictment of top police officials before the Sandiganbayan. The new investigation will focus on private individuals involved, the Justice secretary said.
Aguirre said they have received information that more private individuals were involved in the anomaly but were not covered by the Ombudsman probe.
“With this, we are confident that those individuals who are responsible for this felonious act will be held accountable,” he said, in a statement.
In 2014, it was found that over 1,000 high-powered firearms of PNP worth P52 million had been sold to NPA since 2011 with the unwitting assistance of 19 senior police officials at Camp Crame.
The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group discovered the irregularity after it was found that a cache of AK-47 assault rifles disappeared while papers were being processed by the PNP.
The CIDG had found that a certain Isidro Lozada, owner of a security agency based in Caraga region in Mindanao, bought the firearms.
Lozada bought all the 1,004 AK-47 from gun supply firm Twin Pines using his security agency and also used the names of other security agencies.
After the licensing of the AK-47, Lozada would deliver them to Butuan City where they would be picked up by communist rebels.
The CIDG said the guns were delivered from 2011 to early part of 2013.
In 2015, the Ombudsman indicted 12 police officials led by sacked Chief Supt. Raul Petrasanta before the Sandiganbayan over the controversy.
Petrasanta, six former police officials, five active police officials and three others were charged in the Sandiganbayan for multiple counts of graft in connection with the missing AK-47 assault rifles.