NegOcc gov hopeful that new CCP leader is open to peace talks

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said Monday that he is hopeful that the new leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) will be open to the peace process.

Lacson issued the statement after CPP founder Jose Maria Sison passed away during the weekend in a hospital in the Netherlands where he was in exile for years.

Sison was 83.

“We expect that there will be a new leader that will come out, but we are hoping that this new leader will be open to the peace process and will not be a hardliner,” Lacson told reporters here after the Peace and Order Council meeting Monday.

He also hoped that the new CPP leader will not consider armed struggle as the only option adding that “we are just hoping that this will be a reason to really give peace a chance.”

Lacson said that the passing of Joma Sison should also cause the end of the call for an armed revolution.

The governor said that the Philippine society has been in pursuit of peace for a long time and the moment has come to end the armed conflict in the country so that we can effectively work towards lasting and genuine peace.

As far as the insurgency problem in the province is concerned, it is on the downturn he added.

“The force of the communist terrorists in the province is really going down and with the passing away of Sison we hope the new leaders will reconsider the peace process,” the governor further said.