Joma says charges ‘patently false’

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison branded as "patently false" charges he was responsible for the murder of his comrades in the 1980s, saying he was in detention at that time.

The exiled communist leader also scoffed at the proposal of Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo for him to return to the Philippines and "face the music."

"The charge against me is patently false. I was under maximum security detention in 1985 and as a prisoner I had no position in the CPP or NPA at the the time," he said in a statement.

Sison was reacting to a Manila court's order for his arrest, along with 37 others, over what was known as the  Inopacan Massacre, a 1980's purge of communist members in Leyte accused of various offenses.

Sison, who has been in self-exile in The Netherlands for about three decades now, said that as a "recognized political refugee," he is protected by the Geneva Refugee Convention and by the European Convention on Human Rights.

"I have the right and reason to refuse surrendering myself to a tyrannical regime that fabricates false charges to persecute its critics and opponents. . . .There is no way for the Duterte regime to put its murderous hands on me," he said. —LDF, GMA News