Roque derides Sison over Duterte ouster comment

PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESPERSON Harry L. Roque, Jr. on Monday said exiled communist leader Jose Maria “Joma” Sison is “dreaming” for saying that President Rodrigo R. Duterte “will be ousted.” “Joma Sison, wake up,” Mr. Roque said in Filipino, and challenged the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) who has been living in The Netherlands since 1987 to come home to see for himself the country’s current situation. Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana, meanwhile, said: “Ito talagang si Sison, he never ceases to amaze me. He begs for a peace talk and a ceasefire and now turns around that they will no longer negotiate with this government and threatens to destabilize the administration. Ano ba

ang ginagawa nila (What have they been doing) for the past 49 years?” Mr. Lorenzana accused the CPP, along with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, of using the pursuit of peace talks as a strategy to enforce a ceasefire “so that they can regain lost grounds.” —