Presidential candidate Leody de Guzman (File photo from his Facebook page)
MANILA, Philippines — “My view of him is that he is a revolutionary, not a terrorist,” labor leader Leody de Guzman, who is a presidential candidate, said, speaking in Filipino, of Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
[Original statement: “Ang tingin ko sa kanya, rebolusyonaryo siya, hindi siya terorista.”]
De Guzman made the remark on Tuesday in the One PH program “Wag Po!”.
“If the issue is that he’s called a terrorist, not for me. My view of him is that Joma Sison is a revolutionary individual,” De Guzman added.
Joma Sison, as he is often referred to, has been living as a recognized political refugee in the Netherlands since 1987.
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
In the SMNI presidential debate on Feb. 16, De Guzman said that he would be open to resuming peace talks with the communist rebels, which President Rodrigo Duterte formally ended in 2017.
In May 2021, the Anti-Terrorism Council tagged Sison and 18 other communists as “terrorists.”
In the same SMNI debate, De Guzman noted that the communist insurgents’ armed struggle was fueled by the injustices in the country.
He also recently pledged to abolish the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict and redirect its funds to the Commission on Human Rights.
De Guzman said that, if elected president, he would scrap the task force within the first 100 days of his term for its controversial red-tagging of civilians.