Duterte wants to put OPAPP under military control, says Sison

LUCENA CITY—For exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison, there are other issues surrounding the resignation of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza.

“The real issue may not be corruption but Duterte trying to put Opapp (Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process) under military control, occupation and corruption,” Sison said in an online interview from Utrecht, the Netherlands, on Wednesday.

‘Leeway for corruption’

Sison alleged that “there is far more corruption in the Office of the President (OP)” than in Opapp, which is also under the OP.

“There is a lot of leeway for corruption in Opapp because of the arbitrariness in selecting beneficiaries and fabricating beneficiaries,” he said.

Sison added: “Same arbitrariness as in Duterte’s using of intelligence and discretionary funds for bribing military and police officers to kill people, and for privately pocketing a lot more of such public funds which are not subject to detailed accounting by the Commission on Audit.”

He said the “dismissal or forced resignation” of  Dureza and his subordinates “is also a sign of Duterte’s intolerance toward peace negotiations and his mania for all-out war.”

On Nov. 23, 2017, Mr. Duterte signed Proclamation No. 360 terminating peace talks between his administration and the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

Eleven days later, he issued Proclamation No. 374 declaring the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army rebels, terrorist organizations.

On Monday, the President finally closed the door on any possibility of reopening the negotiations and ordered the military to launch all-out offensives against the Maoist  insurgents.