LUCENA CITY – Exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison has again strongly denied that he branded the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) as a communist front, which he said was the allegation of Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Oscar Albayalde.
“Albayalde and his ilk continue to malign me as having identified the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and other legal democratic organizations as ‘front’ organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines,” Sison said in a statement from Utrecht in the Netherlands on Wednesday night.
Sison issued the statement to refute Albayalde’s allegation that the top rebel leader had identified ACT as one of the CCP’s legal fronts.
Quoting part of his first statement which he issued on Jan. 8, Sison said, “It is in the context of the anticommunist witch-hunt that PNP’s Albayalde tries to use my name for his vile purposes. I say categorically that Albayalde is a big liar.”
“He (Albayalde) is capitalizing on a distorted spy report on a 30-year old video of a speech of mine in Brussels in which I actually differentiate the legal democratic forces and the forces of the armed revolution,” he said.
He added that he has “never identified or enumerated any legal organization as a ‘front’ or facade of the CPP.”
Sison maintained that he has always referred “with respect and accuracy to legal organizations adhering to the line of national independence and democracy as legal democratic formations independent of the CPP.”
He assailed the ongoing “anti-communist witch hunt” against ACT and other legal democratic movements.
He said it’s part of the scheme of the Duterte regime “to intimidate and discredit the forces of the opposition.”
Sison said the scheme has the intent to make it appear that “Duterte’s corrupt and high-spending candidates are real winners in the forthcoming May elections which are now increasingly emerging as characterized by fraud and terrorism by the agents of Duterte in the Comelec, the military and police.”
On Monday, Albayalde warned ACT members that their professional licenses could be revoked if it is proven that they were supporting the rebellion against the government.
Albayalde issued the warning after ACT again sought the help of the Court of Appeals to stop the PNP from profiling its members. /ee
READ: PNP chief warns ACT teachers of revocation of license
READ: Albayalde welcomes ACT petition vs PNP ‘profiling’