(Eagle News)–The Palace on Sunday, Dec. 9, urged Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison to “stop his propaganda war,” and return to the Philippines instead.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made the statement after Sison criticized President Rodrigo Duterte’s foreign policy on the West Philippine Sea.
“We urge Mr. Sison…to see for himself the independent foreign policy course that the President has charted, including a cautious, pragmatic, and diplomatic stance on how to deal with the favorable arbitral ruling,” he said.
Panelo was referring to the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s decision that nullified China’s excessive claims in the West Philippine Sea.
According to Panelo, Duterte is “in the best position to decide on international matters that affect the welfare of the nation” since he has access to information not available to others.
“It behooves (Sison) to put his ideals to a new tact outside of a bloody course that only resulted in meaningless deaths and destruction to properties that have alienated him and his followers from the very people they sought to liberate from what they perceive to be the inequities in our society,” Panelo said.
Earlier, Sison called out China and President Duterte, saying the Asian giant was “using as leverage Duterte’s own inane obsession with getting high interest loans worth USD 9 to 24 billion for some 29 overpriced infrastructure projects.”