By Gabriela Baron
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison has passed away at the age of 83, his party said Saturday, Dec. 17.
Sison reportedly passed away at 8:40 p.m. (PH time) on Friday after being confined at a hospital in The Netherlands for two weeks.
He founded CPP and its armed wing New People’s Army on Dec. 26, 1968.
Sison was arrested in 1977 and was imprisoned for almost nine years, most of which was spent in solitary confinement.
He fled to Europe in self-exile after peace talks with the government failed in 1987.
