The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) announced on December 17, 2022, that its founding leader Jose Ma. Sison, simply Joma Sison, has passed away at the age of 83.
CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena revealed that after being confined for two weeks in a hospital in Utrecht, Netherlands, Sison died at around 8:40 p.m. on December 16, Friday.
Valbuena declared, "The Filipino proletariat and laboring people mourn the passing of their teacher and guiding light.
"The entire Communist Party of the Philippines gives the highest possible tribute to its founding chairman, great Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thinker, patriot, internationalist, and revolutionary leader.
"Even as we mourn, we vow to continue to give all our strength and determination to carry the revolution forward guided by the memory and teachings of the people's beloved Ka Joma."
LEGACY
On December 26, 1968, Sison organized and oversaw the Central Committee of the CPP — a group based on the Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought — as a result of his work as a labor and land reform activist and youth leader.
Eventually, Sison also became the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDF).
For more than 50 years, the CPP, together with its military wing, the New People's Army (NPA), and its political wing, the NDF, has been fighting an insurrection against the Philippine government.
Sison's world-renowned poem The Guerilla is Like a Poet also became the inspiration behind the 2013 CineFilipino Film Festival entry The Guerilla is a Poet.
Read also: MOVIE REVIEW: The Guerilla is a Poet: A lyrical commentary on Jose Maria Sison's memory
The movie explores the relationship between Joma (also known as Amado Guerrero) and Kumander Dante, their reverence for Ninoy Aquino, and their opposition to Ferdinand Marcos.
It also portrays Joma as a lover, a poet, even a singer, and a man with a sense of humor, rather than only as a menacing symbol of Philippine communism.
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