Calling the self-exiled CPP leader “arrogant,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Sison was dreaming when he said that the insurgents could bring down the Duterte administration.
Speaking in Maasin, Leyte, where he accompanied President Rodrigo Duterte, Roque said it was not the government’s fault that the peace talks had not resumed.
He reminded Sison that the President had guaranteed his safety if he returned to the country for the peace talks.
‘Dream on’
“But Sison is really arrogant, he thinks he is the savior of the country. Can you believe it? They will oust the President, that he will not be able to finish his term,” Roque said.
“Joma Sison, wake up, and dream [on]. You cannot oust a government while you are in Europe. You have been staying there for so long now, come home and see how conditions are here now,” he added.
In a radio interview on Monday morning, Roque said the government was not giving up on the peace talks.
“If there are others who want to talk, we will talk [peace] with them,” he said, in response to Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s call for the government to negotiate with regional commanders of the CPP’s armed wing, New People’s Army (NPA).
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana recommended the shelving of the peace talks late Sunday, citing the insurgents’ “insincerity” in pursuing peace.
Three-year plan
According to Lorenzana, the insurgents have crafted a “three-year plan” to “advance the revolutionary movement,” including a plot to unseat the President should he disagree with the establishment of a coalition government.
The plan, he said, was the product of the second People’s Congress of the CPP-NDF (National Democratic Front) and the CPP Central Committee Plenum from October to December 2016.
“Based on the foregoing deliberate actions of the CPP/NDF/NPA, it is obvious that they are not sincere to talk peace,” Lorenzana said.
But in a statement, the CPP said Lorenzana was fearful of becoming irrelevant if the peace talks succeeded.
“He wants no nonmilitary end to the civil war in the Philippines. He fears losing significance if the present civil war in the country is settled politically through peace negotiations,” the CPP said. —With reports from Fate Colobong and Ianna Gayle Agus