Joma Sison dies, CPP announces
Prof. Jose Maria Sison, co-founder of the re-established Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), has died, the revolutionary group’s official newspaper announced. He waa 83.
CPP newsletter Ang Bayan (The People) posted on its Twitter account that one of the world’s most influential Communist ideologues died at about 8:40 Friday night, December 16 (Philippine time).
“Ang Bayan pays the highest tribute to CPP founding chairman, great Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thinker, patriot, internationalist and revolutionary leader, Jose Maria Sison,” the Philippines’ oldest existing underground newspaper said.
“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 CPP said in a statement.
Ang Bayan added that Sison has died after two weeks confinement in an Utrecht, The Netherlands hospital where he had been living in exile since 1986.
Sison also co-founded the New People’s Army in 1969 that wages one of the world’s oldest Maoist revolutions in the world.
At the time of his death, Sison was chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
He was also the chairperson emeritus of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
