Sison shrugs off Duterte’s ‘arrogant’ comment

Communist Party of the Philippines chair Jose Maria “Joma” Sison (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

“I’ll let it pass.”

So said exiled communist leader Jose Maria “Joma” Sison on Saturday in response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement calling him “arrogant.”

“I’ll let it pass I cannot answer a comment that comes from an angry person. I would rather talk with President Duterte personally or behind closed doors about the substantive agenda of peace talks in order to push it forward. I have a high level of tolerance,” Sison said in a video conference from The Netherlands.

In his speech before soldiers in Cebu on Friday evening, Duterte launched tirades against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and Sison.

“Itong komunista, akala mo kung magsalita they are the force to reckon (with) when as a matter of fact they cannot even occupy a single barangay in a single day,” the President said.

He then called his former professor “arrogant.”

“Nayayabangan ako sa iyo, as if you are really the one on power,” he said.

In a television interview last week, Sison blasted Duterte for being “ill-tempered.”

He said the President was acting like a bully in treating the CPP like his personal servant.

Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire with the communist rebels during his first State of the Nation Address but later cancelled it after the group failed to reciprocate the truce.