MANILA, Philippines — Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison on Wednesday slammed the new matrix released by Malacañang linking several individuals and institutions to a plot to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.
Sison, one of the individuals included in the matrices, said the diagram was “not even worth a scrap of toilet paper.”
“The diagrams drawn and released by Duterte and [Presidential Spokesperson Salvador] Panelo are certainly not even worth a scrap of toilet paper,” Sison said in a statement.
Sison also questioned the basis of the matrices, adding that Malacañang should have provided evidence before the court instead of doing “trial by publicity.”
“The diagrams or matrices being bandied about should include a big box to refer to the Filipino people with clear links to the individuals and organizations that are accused of conspiracy to discredit Duterte and in fact share a common detestation for the policies and acts of treason, tyranny, mass murder, plunder and swindling by the traitor and tyrant Duterte,” Sison said.
“In the history of law, guilt by association has long been discredited as a method for criminalizing people through bills of attainder, congressional witch hunts and trial by publicity, instead of approaching first the courts of law with evidence to prove the personal criminal responsibility of everyone accused,” he added.
Sison said the move to link individuals to names of people who are allegedly members of communist groups can be used against Duterte.
The CPP founder noted that photos are more incriminating than diagrams.
“More damning and more telling than diagrams that can be easily drawn by anyone are pictures of camaraderie between Duterte, his son Paolo, son-in-law Mans and Bong Go on the one hand, and the notorious drug lords like Peter Lim, Michael Yang, Kenneth Dong, and others on the other hand,” Sison said.
“The best way to reduce the drawing of diagrams or matrices to absurdity is to use the toilet of the presidential palace as the common point of reference for a criminal linkage between ex-dilawan Duterte and Noynoy Aquino and all sorts of people going to the palace and using the same toilet,” he added.
Sison also questioned if the matrices were the product of Duterte’s “reported nervous breakdown or prolonged rest from dialysis treatment.” /ee
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