President Rodrigo Duterte warned Jose Maria Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) not to return in the country or he will be arrested.

“If Joma Sison comes here, I will arrest him or if I were him, ‘he should not come back here,” Duterte said in his speech at the San Beda law alumni homecoming in Makati City last Friday.

“Better still, I will not allow him to enter his native land and that is a very painful experience especially if you’re dying and you think that you should be buried in your own cemetery, in your own town,” he added.

It can be recalled that during his second State of the Nation Address last July of this year, President Rodrigo Duterte claim that Sison is suffering from colon cancer.

“Sison is sick. He has colon cancer,” he said.

Duterte said he will also order the military to re-arrest the National Democratic Front (NDF) consultants who were previously given temporary liberty to participate in the peace talks.

“I told the judge, to all the judges that you know, I need their (NDF consultants) presence outside of the country so they can travel,” he said. “Now when they return, I will really ask the military to arrest them right at the airport,” he added.

Duterte said about 32 “political leaders, ideological leaders” like the Tiamzon couple, who are high-ranking officials of the Communist Party of Philippines, were released from jail to allow them to join peace negotiations.

“I released them to show good faith and (give ) the confidence building period which is really very necessary in talking to them and to the enemies of the state,” he said.

“So now, I will come up with another. That was a proclamation ending the talks. Now, how I would deal with them is something like this. I will treat them as terrorists. And I will charge them for the crimes that they actually committed,” he added. Robina Asido/DMS