Since being released from custody by then-President Corazon Aquino in 1986, shortly after the "People Power" uprising ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos—the father and namesake of the current Philippine president-Sison had lived in exile in The Netherlands.
The Communist Party of the Philippines' armed branch has been conducting one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies since it was founded by Jose Maria Sison. He was 83. Sison passed away quietly late on Friday after being hospitalized for two weeks in Utrecht, the Netherlands, according to a statement released on Saturday by the party's spokesperson, Marco Valbuena. There was no mention of the reason of death.
Sison passed away ten days before the December 26 celebration of the 54th anniversary of the party he established in 1968.
A few months later, in March 1969, the New People's Army, consisting of about 60 Maoist warriors armed with 26 single-shot rifles and pistols and nine automatic rifles, was formed. However, the movement rapidly evolved and spread throughout the underdeveloped country.
However, defeats in battle, concessions, and internal strife have rendered the guerrilla group, which the United States regards as a terrorist organization and which continues to pose a serious threat to the Philippines, weaker.
Approximately 40,000 fighters and civilians were killed during the communist uprising. Additionally, it has stifled economic growth, particularly in rural areas, where the military estimates that there are still around 2,000 insurgents active.
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines, where Sison worked as chief political strategist, represented communist rebels in peace talks on and off with previous administrations. In March 2019, the peace negotiations were terminated by the previous president Rodrigo Duterte, and they have not since.
The statement from the party read, "The Filipino proletariat and toiling people grieve the death of their teacher and guiding light."
"Even as we mourn, we vow (to) continue to give all our strength and determination to carry the revolution forward guided by the memory and teachings of the people's beloved Ka Joma," the statement continued, using Sison's nick moniker.
"May God have mercy on his soul," Vice President Sara Duterte, the former president's daughter, said in a succinct statement following Sison's passing.
Sison, according to the Department of National Defense, caused thousands of civilian and combatant deaths. His passing "robbed the Filipino people of the opportunity to bring this fugitive to justice under the country's laws," the statement read.
For their suspected involvement in a massacre in 1985, Sison and 37 other people were ordered to be arrested by a Manila court in 2019. The bone remains of rebels who were allegedly executed by their fellow rebels under the presumption that they were military informants were allegedly found in a mass grave that soldiers in Inopacan town on Leyte Island uncovered in 2006.
In a Facebook postdated September 2019, Sison refuted the allegations against him, claiming that they were the result of a "false plan" and that the government had gathered bones from graves to use as evidence against him and the others.
"A new era without Jose Maria Sison dawns for the Philippines, and we will all be the better for it," the Defense Department said.
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