Joma funding national and local bets – AFP

MANILA, Philippines – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reported yesterday a widening rift within the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) over Jose Ma. Sison’s decision to put up a huge amount of money to support the party’s national and local candidates in the May elections.

Citing sources in the CPP-NPA, Maj. Eugenio Julio Osias IV, group commander of the AFP-Civil Relations Service (CRS), said the infighting is now between Sison and his followers in Luzon and the group of Benito Tiamzon whose followers are in Mindanao.

Tiamzon, head of the CPP-NPA military commission, has opposed Sison’s decision to put up a P1-billion fund to finance the campaign of their national and local candidates, all running under the CPP’s political party Makabayan.

“The intense quarrel has much to do with the elections because the proponents of the armed struggle are resentful as they are the ones bringing in the money to feed the organization, yet they are at the receiving end of Sison’s decision that a party victory can only be achieved politically,” Osias said.     – Jaime Laude, Philippine Star