Palace considers Joma's remark vs. Duterte as 'pot calling kettle black'

Malacañang on Saturday slammed Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison for criticizing President Rodrigo Duterte's termination of peace talks with his group.

Sison, on Friday, likened Duterte to an "old broken record repeating ad nauseam his termination of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations."

This came after the  and told the Reds that they can just talk to the next administration.

"As far as the NDFP [National Democratic Front of the Philippines] is concerned, Duterte formally killed the peace negotiations on November 23, 2017 with his Proclamation 360 terminating them," the communist leader said.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that Sison's latest statement is "a case of the pot calling the kettle black."

"If as Mr. Sison says the President sounds like a broken record, the cantankerous steak chieftain of the National Democratic Front is like an echo with his repeated criticisms of President Rodrigo Duterte and this administration to stay politically relevant in the Philippines while maintaining and lapping up his lavish lifestyle in Europe," Panelo said.

"The Office of the President, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, is a 'bully pulpit,' where the Chief Executive expounds his views and agenda to a greater and wider audience. Such platform is given to him by the people who placed him there by a democratic process," the Palace official said.

Panelo also said that while Duterte treads the path that his predecessors did not dare take to achieve genuine peace, Sison prolonged the peace process so he can milk the situation and continue freeloading in the Netherlands as well as enjoying the donations and grants by socialist organizations to his group.

"It is thus vital to explain to the people where the President is coming from and why he officially announced the permanent termination of talks between the government and the CPP, notwithstanding the issuance of Proclamation No. 360," the Palace official said.

"The administration still seeks peace. We are just trying a different tact by localizing the peace talks as the concerns of rebel groups vary from one locality to another specially so that Mr. Sison appears not to have control over the communist forces on the ground," he said.

Panelo said that while the peace negotiation can still be resurrected by a new administration, the CPP-NDFP must first demonstrate genuine sincerity in the peace process by laying down their arms and shun its acts of violence, which include murder, rape, extortion, and destruction of public infrastructure and private properties.

"Until such demonstration of sincerity, the localized peace talks shall be given impetus," he said. —Ted Cordero/LBG, GMA News