Joma Sison: Bongbong an accomplice in keeping ill-gotten wealth to live like a prince

Vice Presidential candidate and Senator Bongbong Marcos during the Radyo Inquirer Issues Forum in Tarlac State University gymnasium in Tarlac City. INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison said Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was capable of running a big campaign for his vice presidential bid allegedly using the money that his late father and namesake had stolen from Filipinos.

Sison made the remark when asked about Marcos’ refusal to acknowledge and apologize for the human-rights violations and atrocities committed during the regime of the late dictator.

READ: Joma Sison: CPP, Ninoy have no role in Plaza Miranda bombing     

“He can mount such a campaign because he is drawing money from what his father had stolen from the people. He has been a criminal accomplice in keeping this stolen money to live like a prince and try to regain political power,” Sison said in a taped interview with Ilena Saturay, a copy of which was obtained by INQUIRER.net.

Saturay is a Filipino political refugee in The Netherlands.

Sison also lamented the prevalent “whitewashing” and “brazen attempt to change the verdict of history,” saying that the Philippine economy suffered a big blow during the Marcos regime.

READ: Anybody but Marcos as Duterte’s vice president—Joma Sison

“The fascist dictatorship of 14 years was absolutely brutal and corrupt.  The human-rights violations have been proven in the US federal court system and confirmed by the Philippine Congress.  The public constructions made by Marcos were overpriced and riddled by corruption. The economy sank because of excessive foreign debt and corruption.

Communist Party of the Philippines founding chair Jose Ma. Sison. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The CPP leader, who was previously accused of plotting the Plaza Miranda bombing in 1971, said the voting public should not limit themselves in choosing only between big political families and dynasties, adding that the Marcos and Aquino clans were “fundamentally the same.”

READ: Joma Sison talks about former student Duterte, other candidates

“They (Marcoses and Aquinos) are major specimens and representatives of such reptiles as the big comprador-landlords and bureaucrat capitalists who exploit and oppress the Filipino people and who in turn are under the baton of US imperialism,” he said.

“The Filipino people are not limited to choosing between oligarchs, the Aquino and Marcos families, or between the political candidates that these families fund and support.  The revolutionary movement of the people is growing in strength and advancing precisely because the people detest and wish to get rid of these oppressive and exploitative dynasties,” Sison added. TVJ