Joma scoffs at Duterte’s ‘personal ownership’ of West PH Sea

Communist leader Jose Maria Sison and President Rodrigo Duterte. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS)

LUCENA CITY –– Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison called President Duterte  “arrogant and stupid” for claiming “personal ownership” of the vast West Philippine Sea (WPS).

“Duterte is utterly arrogant and stupid for resuming that he owns the West Philippine Sea and that he has the prerogative to sell out the sovereign rights of the Filipino people to China,” Sison said in a statement from his base in Utrecht in the Netherlands on Wednesday afternoon.

Sison alleged that Duterte was selling the country’s sovereignty “in exchange for the commissions and payola that he and his ruling clique get.”

“Duterte is a tyrant who has a penchant for personally owning things like the military and police, which he has converted into his private army,” Sison said.

On Wednesday, President Duterte insisted that the Philippines has sovereign rights in the WPS despite his decision to allow China to fish in the country’s exclusive economic zone.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m the owner and I’m just giving the fishing rights,” Duterte said in an interview by Pastor Apollo Quiboloy in his show “Give Us This Day.” /lzb