Palace wishes Sison well, says exile blunted him
Malacañang wished Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison well despite the latter's recent remark where he described President Duterte as a ‘modern maniac.’
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo made the statement after Sison said in an interview that Duterte's administration is even worse than that of the late former president Ferdinand E. Marcos.
"If a mediocre student like Duterte, and if someone who is only good for being mayor, and even bad as he was, engaged in extrajudicial killings, now you have a maniac, a modern maniac in power trying to put on a national scale his bloodthirsty kind of character and this is the worst manifestation of the oligarchy–much worse than the Marcos phenomenon," Sison said in an televised interview.
In his statement, Panelo said that Sison must have been dulled by his long exile and has put him out of touch with reality.
He also said that the CPP founder is in a constant state of hallucination.
"An intellectual whose 50 years of rebellion is a failure that brought only the loss of lives and destruction of property and fear to the very people he is supposed to have fought for as against a self-proclaimed mediocre city mayor who rose to the presidency of the land by an overwhelming majority," Panelo said.
He also said that it is obvious that the people will side with Duterte who he said launched a revolution of change in almost all aspects of governance.
"[President Duterte] is performing his constitutional duty to serve and to protect the people and preserve the democratic way of life from the criminals, the corrupt, the terrorists and from the likes of failed ideologies like Jose Maria Sison. The choice is obvious," he added.
According to Panelo, time will eventually catch up with Sison who left his men out to die in the Philippines while he enjoys a life of luxury abroad.
He expressed hope that the rebels will realize that it is not too late for them to surrender.
"The winds of change will sweep this incorrigible rebel, who is living in comfort and luxury while his comrades are in the hills, as well as those who follow him, to oblivion and will be buried in the dustbin of history. It is not too late, though, for them to return to the fold of society and embrace the rule of law and the majority," he said.
"In the spirit of Christmas, we still wish him well and pray that he be blessed with inner peace and enlightenment," he added.