PNP probes Garins’ link to communist rebels

President Duterte has urged communist rebels to reconsider their loyalty to their leader Jose Maria Sison, saying they should not suffer and die for someone they have not seen.

Duterte claimed Sison, who has been on self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987, is living a comfortable life abroad while his followers suffer and die.

“Why listen to Sison? What does he know? Social justice? You have not even seen that b **** yet you die for his beliefs. It’s that simple,” the President said in Filipino during the distribution of land ownership certificates to agrarian reform beneficiaries in Kidapawan City on Saturday.

“You just listen to lectures but you have not seen him. You have not seen the guy. He is in Amsterdam experiencing the cool weather there. Even his b **** have become frozen,” he added.

Sison formed the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1968 as a reaction to the policies and alleged abuses of the administration of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

Talks between the government and the rebels collapsed in 2017 after Duterte accused the communists of demanding a power-sharing deal that he said would violate the constitution.

Communist negotiators have denied making such demand and have blamed the cancellation of the talks on “spoilers” from the government.