CPP declares 10-day mourning period for departed founder

CPP founder Jose Maria Sison

LUCENA CITY – The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CC-CPP) has declared a 10-day period of mourning for their departed founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison.

“We declare the following ten days as a period of mourning for the entire Party in order to give the highest possible tribute to Ka Joma,” the CC-CPP said in a statement posted on Saturday on the website of Philippine Revolution Web Central.

Marco Valbuena, CPP public information officer, said they have been coordinating with Sison’s family in Utrecht, the Netherlands for the wish of various groups and individuals to bury its departed founder in the country.

Sison, 83, died in a hospital in Utrecht on Friday, Dec. 16, at 8:40 p.m., Philippine time.

There is no information on the cause of Sison’s death.

Sison has lived in self-exile in Europe ever since peace talks with the government bogged down in 1987.

Sison founded the Marxist-Lennist-Maoist CPP on Dec. 26, 1968, a breakaway party from the pro-Soviet Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas.

On March 29, 1969, the CPP also formed its armed wing, the NPA in a village in Tarlac province.

gsg