“Yeah right! Coming from the mastermind of the Plaza Miranda bombing.”
This was Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s reaction to Jose Maria Sison’s accusation that the Duterte administration was behind the massacre of nine sugar workers in Sagay City, Negros Occidental.
Lorenzana said Sison, founder of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), has killed hundreds of New People’s Army (NPA) members being suspected as government agents as well as innocent civilians in the past 50 years.
“The killing of hundreds of New People’s Army (NPA) cadres suspected of being agents of the government, as well as assassination/killings of innocent civilians in the past 50 years,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
He added that Sison is part of a “pathetic” revolutionary failure who only brought suffering to Filipinos.
“As I’ve said before, you will be consigned to the dustbin of history as a pathetic revolutionary failure who has achieved nothing of note but who, instead, wrought bloodshed and suffering to the Filipino people,” he said.
Last Oct. 21, nine sugarcane workers were gunned down in Negros Occidental. The Armed Forces chief Carlito Galvez then suspected that the workers were recruited and allegedly deceived by the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), a front organization of the communist rebels.
READ: AFP says Sagay killings part of NPA plot to oust Duterte
However, on Oct. 23, Sison said in a statement that the Duterte regime was “culpable” for the killings of the workers.
“By blaming the NPA, the real perpetrators are covered up and go scot-free after murdering the poor farmers, including two minors. This is in line with the Duterte policy of killing poor people with impunity,” he said. /ee