Jose Maria Sison INQUIRER.net file photo
The resignation of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza “surprised” the National Democratic Front of Philippines (NDFP), Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison said Wednesday.
“We in the NDFP are surprised because we had always thought that Duterte and Dureza were quite close to each other and had mutual trust and confidence,” Sison said in an interview over the ABS-CBN News Channel.
Sison said that the resignation of Dureza could be a sign of possible increasing hostility from Duterte.
“We are considering whether what appears to be the forced resignation of Dureza is a further sign of the growing brutality, hostility of Duterte towards NDFP and the revolutionary forces that it represents,” he said.
Dureza resigned Tuesday as Duterte’s chief peace negotiator after the President fired an undersecretary and an assistant secretary of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) for alleged corruption.
Dureza took responsibility and apologized for the corruption in his office.
READ: Duterte: I accepted Dureza’s resigntion / Dureza takes full responsibility for corruption at OPAPP
Sison found the alleged corruption at the OPAPP to be unbelievable because it would mean corruption in the Office of the President itself that could involve intelligence and discretionary funds.
“There is something unbelievable about the corruption charge as an issue for the removal of the undersecretaries and Jesus Dureza took responsibility because you know there is corruption in the office of President Duterte himself,” Joma said.
“There is a lot of racket involving especially the intelligence and discretionary funds,” he added.
Duterte has been firing appointive officials whom he believed were involved in corruption.
Dureza said that he had validated reports of corruption by some OPAPP officials.
Sison said that for them Dureza was better for the peace process than Duterte.
“Between Dureza and Duterte, Dureza is a more reasonable and sane person compared to Duterte who’s always sounding a horn on the war path,” he said.
According to Sison, Dureza and Labor Secretary Silvestre “Bebot” Bello worked hard to open ways for the resumption of peace negotiations while Duterte terminated the peace talks and declared the CPP and the New People’s Army as terrorists.
Sison expressed apprehension that Duterte might also militarize the OPAPP.
The NDFP “surmised that Duterte would like the military, like the outgoing Chief of Staff (Carlito) Galvez, to take over the Oppap and militarize it,” he said. /cbb