(POLITIKO) The passing of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Ma. Sison will may not necessarily lead to the death of the insurgency in the country, but it will “further weaken” the communist rebellion, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said on Monday.
“The past few years showed that the insurgency problem, which spanned over five decades and is one of the world’s longest ongoing armed conflicts, has been diminishing due to significant improvements in peace and development in the countryside,” Estrada said in a statement.
“Thus, their efforts to establish a communist state have been nil. While they continue to be a threat that must be eliminated, their strength in numbers has been on a continuous decline,” he noted.
He said the government should make use of Sison’s death to “intensify the collaboration of different agencies, stakeholders, local government units, and even the general public in crushing the communist idea that drives the armed struggle.
“Responsibilidad ng bawat isa sa atin na pangalagaan ang kinabukasan ng mga susunod na henerasyon at masiguro na matamo na natin ang mailap na pangmatagalang kapayapaan,” he said.
Sison, 83, died on Dec. 16 after spending two weeks in a hospital in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where he had been on self-exile since 1987.
His death came exactly 10 days before the CPP is set to mark its 54th year of waging the world’s longest-running Maoist rebellion on Dec. 26.