Sison's death ''can facilitate apparent decline and eventual demise of the CPP-NDF-NPA": analyst
The death of Jose Maria Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, ''can facilitate the apparent decline and eventual demise of the CPP-National Democratic Front-New People's Army (CPP-NDF-NPA),'' a political analyst said.
Sison passed away in the Netherlands where he had been in exile since the late 1980s, the CPP said Saturday. He was 83. The NPA, armed wing of the CPP, has been battling the military for at least 50 years with at least 40,000 people killed.
Rommel Banlaoi, chairperson of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, said in a text message to the Daily Manila Shimbun, the NPA '' are losing their footholds as a result of the focused military operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.''
Ronald Holmes, a political science professor of De La Salle University, said in a message to the Daily Manila Shimbun that the NPA are still influential ''in some areas in the country.''
''The NPA strength declined due to its own making, after the split within in the 90s,'' added Holmes, also head of Pulse Asia Research.
Sol Iglesias, assistant professor at the University of the Philippines, said in a separate message to Daily Manila Shimbun:''Party leaders are presented with a choice: continuity with someone from Sison's generation; or change, with someone younger.''
''A younger leader, untainted by the traumatic internal purge of the 80s, could work better with groups in the broader Philippine Left, for example,'' she added.
As for peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front, the political arm of the CPP, Iglesias said: ''Sison's death may not necessarily dislodge the stumbling block to peace talks between the Philippine government to end the communist insurgency.''
''To restart the peace talks, the ball is in the Marcos government's court,'' she said.
Banlaoi said '''As far as I know, there is no pressure for the GPH (Government of the Philippines) not to push for talks with NDF as leaders are being hunted, those with pending criminal cases.'' DMS
