Duterte to Joma Sison: NPA can’t win war vs government

Jose Maria Sison (left), founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, was a professor of President Rodrigo Duterte in college. (File photos from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — The New People’s Army (NPA), the armed group of the Communist Party of the Philipines (CPP), could not the win the five decades of war it has been waging against the government.

President Rodrigo Duterte made the statement Wednesday night during a speech in Cagayan de Oro, where he led the distribution of Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) to 3,400 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Northern Mindanao (Region 10).

He directed his statements about the communist insurgency to Jose Maria Sison, founding chairman of the CPP, who is living in exile in Utrecht in the The Netherlands.

The President blamed the NPA for the massacre of nine sugarcane farmers in Sagay town, Negros Occidental, earlier this month, saying: “It was their style.” Duterte said as he

“You, communists, you have your style,” he said. “The one which happened in Bacolod, it was they who killed their own members.”

He also said the government was keen on distributing government lands to the landless.

“If you’re a rebel, just behave because I distribute lands. I give them away, they’re not mine,” Duterte said, referring to government lands, which he had earlier promised would be distributed to those who would need them.

“But don’t occupy, don’t seize what you don’t own,” he said, this time warning the urban group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay).

If Kadamay members would insist on occupying government housing projects, he said they would be dealt in full force by the police. And if they fight back, the police could shoot them.

“Do not seize other people’s properties,” he said. “Do not intimidate people because I won’t let you.”

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) distributed a total of 5,808 hectares of agricultural lands in Northern Mindanao to agrarian reform beneficiaries in a ceremony at the gymnasium of the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) on Wednesday night.

Of the total land titles awarded, 1,153 CLOAs involved 3,856 hectares in Lanao del Norte distributed to 1,807 former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)-turned agrarian reform beneficiaries; 975 CLOAs involved 1,527 hectares of land in Bukidnon; 267 CLOAS for 296 hectares in Misamis Oriental; and a number of CLOAS distributed to former NPA members, involving 283 hectares in Gingoog City; and 116 CLOAs for some 127 hectares of land in Misamis Occidental. /atm