Sison calls Duterte ‘No. 1 drug addict;’ Palace shrugs
The word war between President Rodrigo Duterte and elf-exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison continues to rage, with the rebel leader calling the President the “No. 1 drug addict” in the country.
Malacañang merely brushed off the name-calling.
Communications Assistant Secretary for Policy and Legal Affairs Kristian Ablan said Sison, as a Filipino citizen, may exercise his Constitutional right to express what he thinks about the President.
“Regardless if Mr. Sison is outside of the Philippines, he remains to be a Filipino citizen. He has (the) Constitutional right to freedom of expression. If he was to call the President that (way), that’s within his Constitutional right,” Ablan said in a press conference.
In an unabated word war with Duterte, Sison tagged the 71-year-old Chief Executive as the Philippines’ top “drug addict” for using Fentanyl, an extremely potent opiod.
Sison said Duterte is the “most fitting target” of the authorities who are tasked to intensify the crack down on illegal drugs.
“As an addict user of the opiod Fentanyl, Duterte is the number one drug addict in the Philippines and is the most fitting target of the police units that he has turned into death squads and corrupted with money and promotions,” the CPP founder said in a statement on Sunday.
Duterte admitted in December last year that he was using Fentanyl patches, a narcotic used to treat severe chronic pain.
The President also said in a speech in February that taking Fentanyl relieved his pain and made him feel like he was on “cloud nine.”
“More than just the disappearance of pain, you feel that you are on cloud nine. It seems everything is okay with the world, nothing to worry about,” Duterte said, recounting that the times when he was using Fentanyl patches.
Duterte and Sison have been engaged in a word war since the President announced that he would no longer talk with the rebels.
Duterte was enraged by the spate of attacks carried out by the New People’s Army, CPP’s armed wing, against government troops.
In one incident last month, the rebels and some Presidential Security Group (PSG) men figured in an encounter in Arakan, North Cotabato after Duterte’s security aides passed by a fake military detachment set up by the rebels.
The NPA intensified its attacks after Duterte announced that he had recommended the extension of martial law in Mindanao until the end of this year.
On July 27, Duterte challenged Sison, whom he described as a “coward,” to return to the Philippines and join the communist rebels in fighting the government forces.
Sison, who has been in self-exile in the Netherlands for 30 years now, said he was ready to come back home to fight Duterte’s “puppet regime of US” (United States) imperialism.
The government has yet to issue a formal notice scrapping the peace talks with the communist rebels. The negotiators were supposed to meet for the 5th round of talks early this month.