MANILA — A month ago, President Rodrigo R. Duterte invited self-exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison to come home and gave him 60-day window for “make or break” peace talks.
On Thursday, Duterte said Sison has accepted his invitation but warned the President would escort the communist leader out of the country and not allow him to go back again if nothing would happen in the peace talks.
“If we can understand each other, then it’s good. If not, I will see to it and will personally maybe escort him to the airport if nothing would happen in two months,” Duterte said in his speech during inauguration of the Davao River Bridge widening project in Davao City.
“I will allow him to go out. I will not arrest him because that word of honor but will really tell him, “p***** i**, do not go back again here,” he added.
Duterte said if Sison will return again to the Philippines, he will kill the communist leader because he killed “so much of my soldiers and policemen”.
“If nothing will happen, I would tell him “do not ever, ever return again to this country. I will kill you,” he said.
Sison had expressed openness and readiness to resume peace negotiations which the President cancelled in November last year due to the series of attacks launched by the New People’s Army on civilians and government troops.
In response, Duterte said in an event in Legazpi on April 23 this year that he is ready to give the communist rebels another chance to talk peace.
Duterte had even said he would allow the communist rebels to set up a camp where they could talk without arms around.
The President assured that Sison will be given complete freedom to move around without being harmed by the military and police.
Sison went into exile in the Netherlands after the two-decade regime of former President Ferdinand Marcos ended in 1986. (Jelly Musico/PNA)
