LUCENA CITY—Communist rebels had been preparing for all scenarios under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, according to top communist leader Jose Maria “Joma” Sison.
“I believe the revolutionary movement is ready for any of his negative plans,” Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines founder, said in an online chat from his base in The Netherlands.
He said negotiators of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the umbrella organization of underground rebel groups, “are taking careful steps” in dealing with Duterte’s peace overtures.
“We already know of the flip-flop character of Duterte,” said Sison.
“Which is why the revolutionary forces are alert and ready to fight,” he said.
His statements were in reply to Duterte’s renewed tirade against communist rebels.
Duterte, turning impromptu in his speech during a visit to quake survivors in Mindanao, said the rebellion had been “nothing but plain banditry.” Rebels, Duterte said, had been “devoid of ideology.”
Referring to rebel taxation, Duterte said rebels “collect from farm enterprises, burn trucks.” “It doesn’t make sense,” he told the quake survivors.
But in the same speech, Duterte also reiterated his desire for a face-to-face meeting with Sison in the Philippines.
Sison, however, had rejected Duterte’s invitation to come home to meet with his former student, saying he preferred if they met at a neutral country.