Jose Maria Sison

Jose Maria Sison
Portrait of Comrade Joma.
Born	Jose Maria Canlas Sison 8 February 1939 Cabugao, Ilocos Sur, Philippines
Died	16 December 2022 Utrecht, Netherlands
Nationality	Filipino
Ideology	Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Anti-revisionism
Political party	CPP

Jose Maria Sison (8 February 1939 – 16 December 2022), also known as Joma, was a Filipino revolutionary, writer, poet, professor, and founding member of the Communist Party of the Philippines from 1968 until his death in 2022. He founded the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and waged a people's war in the Philippines since 1969. He has been in exile in the Netherlands since 1988 and has led the party from there for the rest of his life.

Early Life and Education

Jose Maria Sison was born to a landlord political family in February 8, 1939, in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur. Some of his relatives were killed by the HUKBALAHAP (early Filipino Marxist-Leninist guerilla movement) due to their upper-class landlord status. He learned more about the “Huks”, as they were colloquially called, from Ilocos farm workers. He once was supportive of populist and anti-imperialist politicians. He claimed to get interested in Communism from reading an anti-communist book in his Jesuit High School. Upon graduating from the University of the Philippines in 1959, he studied in Indonesia and upon returning to the Philippines, he became a Professor at the University of the Philippines-Diliman of literature and later political science. He co-founded a youth organization called Kabataang Makabayan (Patriotic Youth) in 1964, where it stood against the Vietnam War, bureaucrat capitalism, and feudalism.

See also

• National Democracy