CPP founding chairman Joma Sison passes away

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, who has been in self-exile in the Netherlands since 1987, has passed away. He was 83.

Sison’s demise was announced by CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena.

“Prof. Jose Ma. Sison, founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines, passed away at around 8:40 p.m. (Philippine time) after two weeks of confinement in the hospital,” Valbuena said.

“The Filipino proletariat and toiling people grieve the death of their teacher and guiding light,” he said.

Sison, who was an activist, founded the leftist revolutionary organization CPP in December 1968. 

The CPP has been waging an insurgency rebellion against the Philippine government along with its armed wing New People’s Army (NPA) and political arm National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) for over five decades.

"May God have mercy on his soul," Vice President Sara Duterte said in a statement. —Ted Cordero/KG, GMA Integrated News