Jose Maria Sison should stop his “propaganda war by long distance” and return home to see the impact of President Duterte’s independent foreign policy, Malacañang said Sunday, following the communist leader’s criticism of the government’s stance on the West Philippine Sea issue.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Sison has become “out of touch” with the country’s realities and should realize his dream of seizing government power was over.
Panelo made the statement after Sison called Duterte “a traitor and a dopehead” for refusing to sue China over its incursion into the country’s territory. Sison reportedly said instead of fighting for the country’s sovereign rights and charging China with $176.6 billion in rent and environment damages, Duterte was “stupid” to turn the country into a debt colony of the Asian giant.
“We find it lamentable and pathetic that Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairperson Jose Ma. Sison resorted to ad hominem attacks in criticizing the President’s policy on the West Philippine Sea,” Panelo said.
“We urge Mr. Sison to stop his propaganda war by long distance and to return to the Philippines and 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 added.
Panelo also hit back at Sison for relying on a two-year old Forbes article by Anders Corr titled “China May Owe the Philippines $177 Billion in South China Sea Rent and Damages” to attack the President.
The Palace official claimed that Corr was “an international political risk analyst who has worked for several projects with an institution that Mr. Sison and his cabal strongly denounce, the United States military.”
The article, Panelo added, was published last July 15, 2016 “or two weeks into the Duterte presidency, which clearly proves that he is out-of-touch of the realities in the Philippines as a result of more than three decades of high living in Europe.”
In the wake of Sison’s criticisms, Panelo explained that the President has chosen to pursue dialogue with China instead of waging war for the sake of national interest.
“The President has a wealth of information at his disposal, which is not readily available to ordinary citizens or foreigners, hence, he is in the best position to decide on international matters that affect the welfare of the nation which includes steering clear of a potential warfare with China and maintaining constructive dialogues with our giant neighbor through a bilateral consultation mechanism paving way for 29 agreements that would benefit our nation and our people,” he said. (Genalyn D. Kabiling)
