Sison again says Duterte’s demands to resume peace talks unacceptable

COMMUNIST PARTY of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria C. Sison on Thursday again said President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s conditions for the resumption of peace talks are unacceptable. “Duterte must be crazy or clowning in reiterating the preconditions he made so many times before,” said Mr. Sison in a statement. Last weekend, Mr. Duterte asked the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the CPP, to give up their arms and cooperate with the government’s land reform program. The exiled communist leader also accused Mr. Duterte of being “on the path of fraud and terrorism in the current electoral campaign period.” He said, “It must be obvious to the people that the Duterte regime is spending huge amounts of public and private money in the billions of pesos to pay for all sorts of propaganda… to misrepresent his losing candidates as winners.” —