Jose Maria Sison

Jose Maria Canlas Sison (February 8, 1939 – December 16, 2022), also known as Joma, was a Filipino writer, poet, and activist who founded and led the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and added elements of Maoism to its philosophy—which would be known as National Democracy.

His ideology was formed by applying Marxism–Leninism–Maoism to the history and circumstances of the Philippines.

Sison was born in Ilocos Sur to a landowning political family.

He was educated in Manila, studying at Ateneo de Manila University, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, and the University of the Philippines.

He then became a professor of literature, political science, and Rizal studies.

Jose Maria Canlas Sison was born on February 8, 1939, in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur to a prominent landowning family with ancestry from Spanish-Mexican-Malay mestizos and from Fujian, China, and with connections to other prominent clans such as the Crisólogos, Geraldinos, Vergaras, Azcuetas, Sollers, Serranos and Singsons.

This was known as the First Great Rectification Movement where Sison and other radical youth criticized the existing party leadership for its errors and failures since 1942.

The old Communist Party had been run under a series of Moscow-leaning general secretaries from the Lava family.

The reestablished CPP set its general political line as a two-stage revolution comprising national-democratic as the first stage then proceeding to the socialist revolution.

He was convicted in 1946 of having collaborated with the Japanese occupation forces but was amnestied in 1947.

During his childhood in Ilocos, he learned about the Huk rebellion in Central Luzon from Ilocano farm workers and from his mother, who belonged to a landlord family in Mexico, Pampanga.

In his early high school years in Manila, he talked to his barber about Hukbalahap activities.

Unlike his elder siblings, he attended a public school before entering Ateneo de Manila University and later studying at Colegio de San Juan de Letran.

During his youth, he learned about the rebellion of the communist Hukbalahap (Huk), which ended in 1954.

Sison graduated from the University of the Philippines in 1959 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in English literature with honors and then studied Indonesian in Indonesia before returning to the Philippines and becoming a university professor of literature and eventually Rizal Studies and Political Science.

Sison joined the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP; "Philippine Communist Party") in 1962 and became a member of its executive committee in early 1963.

He joined the Lavaite Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas in December 1962 and became a member of its executive committee in early 1963.

He was the Vice Chairman of the Lapiang Manggagawa (which eventually became the Socialist Party) and the general secretary of the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism.

In 1964 he co-founded the Kabataang Makabayan ("Patriotic Youth").

However, Sison's faction had several disagreements with the PKP leading to the First Great Rectification Movement.

In 1964, he co-founded the Kabataang Makabayan, or Patriotic Youth, with Nilo S. Tayag.

This organization organized youth against the Vietnam War, Ferdinand Marcos, imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism and feudalism.

The organization also spearheaded the study of Maoism as part of 'the struggle'.

After Sison's faction were expelled from the PKP, he founded and became the chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1968.

Three months later, Sison and Bernabe Buscayno, who led a faction of Huk holdouts, organized the New People's Army (NPA) to stage a proletarian revolution.

On December 26, 1968, he formed and led the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), an organization founded on Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought, stemming from his experience as a youth leader and labor and land reform activist.

Sison was captured in 1977 and was imprisoned, mostly in solitary confinement, until the People Power Revolution of 1986.

The new government under President Corazon Aquino released him for the sake of "national reconciliation" and for his role in opposing the martial law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos.

Nonetheless, he also criticized the Aquino administration.

In 1988, while in the Netherlands as part of his international lecture tour, his passport was revoked and he was charged in the Philippines for violating the Anti-Subversion Act.

From then on, he lived in the Netherlands but continued to advise the communist movement in the Philippines.

Since August 2002, Sison has been classified as a "person supporting terrorism" by the United States.

The European Court of First Instance ruled in September 2009 to delist him as a "person supporting terrorism" and reversed a decision by member governments to freeze his assets.

Sison was charged with several counts of murder in the Philippines and the Netherlands (later dropped).

He died in exile in 2022.

The CPP, NPA, and the National Democratic Front (NDF) are considered terrorist organizations by the Philippines' Anti-Terrorism Council.

His great-grandfather, Don Leandro Serrano, was the biggest landlord in northern Luzon at the end of the 19th century.

His grandfather, Don Gorgonio Soller Sison, was the last gobernadorcillo of Cabugao under Spanish colonial rule, the municipal president under the Philippine revolutionary government, and the first mayor under US colonial rule.

His great-uncle, Don Marcelino Crisólogo was the first governor of Ilocos Sur.

His uncle, Teófilo Sison was governor of Pangasinan and the first Defense Secretary in the Commonwealth government.