Joma’s rants immaterial - Lorenzana
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday that Communist Party of the Philippines' Jose Maria Sison's rejection of the move for localized peace talks was expected, and that what Joma thinks and rants about is immaterial because the peace discourse has already been brought to local insurgents.
"I consider Sison’s rejection and rant as just a noisy distraction, like the barking of a dog that is best ignored," Lorenzana said in a statement.
Lorenzana also taunted Joma for holding on to his "illusion" of grandeur and control over local communist insurgents.
"Did he think that the government would stop just because the 'mighty' Sison rejects it? Fat chance Mr. Sison. Do you really think that you still hold sway over events here in the Philippines? Dream on Mr. Sison. Hold on to your misguided dreams because they are all that’s left for you. The world has moved on while you continue to wallow in your delusions of grandeur."
Also, the Defense chief lashed out at Sison for saying that localized talks is a waste of money.
If the money given to insurgents returning to the fold of law to live normal lives with their families and become productive citizens in society is a waste of money, then we should waste money for these endeavors, Lorezana said.
He insisted that Sison is the one wasting money for lavish spending of resources from the so-called "revolutionary taxation" to maintain his luxurious lifestyle in the Netherlands. "That is a real waste of money," said Lorenzana.
Earlier, Joma Sison echoed the CPP's remarks ignoring government initiatives on localized peace talks.
"Duterte wants to negotiate with his own shadow. So-called localized peace talks are an old discredited psywar tactic. It is a kind of racket, with the local political followers and military agents of Duterte pocketing the money for the fake surrenders," Joma tweeted.
The CPP last Friday rejected President Rodrigo Duterte's offer for localized peace talks, describing it as "pretend talks" that will go nowhere and will only inspire corruption at the local level.
"So-called localized peace talks are a sham, a waste of people’s money, and are doomed to fail," the CPP said in a statement as it accused Duterte of "pretend[ing] to want peace while actually waging total war against the people."