Joma to AFP: Don’t speculate on Rody ouster plot

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison slammed the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for engaging in speculation in singling out an overseas Filipino worker as the lone source of a group seeking the ouster of President Duterte.

Sison said AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla made the mistake of accusing a certain Jon Bustamante of Pinoy Abrod as the originator of the Patriotic and Democratic Movement (PADEM), a group that calls for the ouster of Duterte.

Pinoy Abrod is an Amsterdam-based publication of overseas Filipino workers with whom Bustamante is closely associated.

Sison said Bustamante initially received the PADEM call from military and police officers from the Philippines and the US on his Facebook account.

Military cyber security experts traced the origin of PADEM to Bustamante, whom they claimed to be closely identified with Sison.

Shortly after Bustamante uploaded the PADEM statement, Sison and his fellow communist leader Fidel Agcaoili shared on their respective social media accounts Bustamante’s post.

“It is understandable why the PADEM leaders and members are not yet revealing their real identities. If they do so prematurely, they would be subjected to punitive measures and even physical elimination. The high sense of security of PADEM should not give General Padilla the license to call PADEM a one-man organization,” Sison said.

Padilla stood by the military findings, saying the CPP leadership is only waging a campaign against the government aimed at deceiving the public into believing that there is now a brewing rift within the military and police.

“They failed to get what they want from the government,” Padilla said.

Padilla added that when the unilateral ceasefire and later the peace talks were ordered terminated by the President, Sison and his colleagues were stunned as these moves cut short their anti-government plans.