JMS Legacy Foundation

Biography

Discover the extraordinary life of Jose Maria Sison, Great communist thinker, leader, teacher and guide of the Filipino proletariat and torch bearer of the international communist movement. Scroll through the timeline below to see key dates in Ka Joma’s life, or click through the headings of different periods of his life to delve into a narrative of his biography to explore his legacy and unwavering dedication to building a better world for future generations.

Early Years

Childhood and early influences

Jose Maria “Ka Joma” Canlas Sison was born on February 8, 1939 in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur to Salustiano Serrano Sison and Florentina Canlas. His father belonged to the principal feudal family in Cabugao. The family belonged to the Serrano clan of big landlords and, as in many cases, also meant that they wielded political power at the local level of the reactionary ruling system.

The family were patriotic. His grandfather was sympathetic to the revolution of 1896 against Spain. He also supported the resistance against the US colonizers and for this would be deported to the Marianas islands. During the Japanese occupation, the family supported the anti-Japanese guerillas, providing them with grain. Joma’s father was also patriotic and had great admiration for Claro M. Recto, who was a strong proponent of nationalism and a firm opponent of the US puppet president at the time, Ramon Magsaysay. Joma’s father had great ambitions for Joma, for him to get a good education, become a politician and later the president of the country.  

Reaching school age after World War II, unlike his elder siblings, he began grade school in a public elementary school just across his ancestral home. Here, his classmates and friends were children of tenants from whom he listened to tales of exploitation and oppression of his family. As he matured, he carried these tales with him, which were reinforced by observations of exploitation and oppression among the working class poor in Manila where he was sent for secondary schooling at the exclusive Catholic schools, Ateneo de Manila and San Juan de Letran.

High school

In high school, he went to the sectarian Jesuit school of the Ateneo de Manila in the country’s capital where children of the wealthy and powerful studied. He was among the top in his class. But he also showed early signs of a rebellious spirit by rallying his classmates against a Jesuit teacher which got him dismissed from the school.

He finished high school in another sectarian school, San Juan de Letran, run by the Dominicans, a very conservative religious order.  It was here that he first encountered the writings of Marx and Engels, ironically in an anti-communist book.

University

The political climate in the 1950s-1960s was characterized by intense reaction and an ebb in the revolutionary movement. On the other hand there were also the stirrings of a rising nationalism as exemplified by Claro M. Recto. Around the world there was a wave of anticolonial struggles sweeping Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Joma went to the University of the Philippines (UP), the premier state university in the country. The university has the reputation of being both a breeding ground for radicals and also for people who had ambitions to climb up the ladder of the reactionary political system.

It was during his first semester that he met Julieta de Lima, his classmate in several shared subjects. This marked the start of the lifelong partnership between Joma and Julie. Together they engaged in philosophical, socio-political and cultural discussions with groups of friends, together with some university professors. From these discussions, they honed their outlook which led them to the great philosopher, Karl Marx, and vowed to follow his teachings by addressing the socio-political issues confronting the people.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts with honors in English in three years instead of the usual four, majoring in journalism and creative writing. He was granted a scholarship to undertake his Masters in journalism and creative writing starting in 1959, but would not be able to finish due to the cancelling of his teaching contract as a result of his political activism. 

Back to top

Early activism

Formation of SCAUP

Joma’s first attempt at resolving societal issues was producing the concept note of a movement, the Alliance for Liberation and Socialist Advance (ALSA) in 1958. Together with Julie, he discussed this with close friends who all supported the project. However, just as they were about to proceed with organizing, they chanced upon the writings of Mao Zedong in the private collection of a political science professor in the university. Joma avidly read and studied Mao’s writings and realized they were on the wrong track by aiming to organize ALSA. By reading up, studying and analyzing the political economy of the Philippines, he realized that the country and its people first needed to be freed from feudal and semifeudal exploitation and oppression before taking on the task of building socialism. 

Thus he proceeded in 1959 to organize the Student Cultural Association of the University of the Philippines (SCAUP) not only to oppose the pro-US imperialist reactionaries who dominated the liberal arts faculty and the general run of the UP students in the UP Student Catholic Action (UPSCA) under the tutelage of the American Jesuit Father Delaney but also to advocate national liberation and democracy.

SCAUP had a two level educational program for members: the openly promoted national democratic courses on a comprehensive range of issues involving the contradiction between the US dominated ruling system of big compradors and landlords and the national and democratic demands of the people; and the discreet Marxist-Leninist-Maoist courses on revolutionary theory and practice.

SCAUP recruited the brightest and most accomplished students who were already leading other campus organizatons, those who could write for and/or compete for the editorship of the Philippine Collegian and those who had high academic marks required to be fielded as candidates for the student council. Thus SCAUP members won the editorship of the Philippine Collegian and transformed its advocacy to anti-imperialism and progressive ideas. Joma and other SCAUP members also published unstable little magazines espousing similar anti-imperialist and progressive ideas. It turned the pro-imperialist tide among the students and eventually SCAUP members won the UP Student Council elections which then became a progressive organizing instrument for schools all over the Philippines. With the resources of the UP Student Council, SCAUP organized conferences inviting members of student council and student publications from all over the country and thus laid the basis for organizing Kabataang Makabayan six years later.

By promoting the ideas of national freedom and democracy against the local exploiting classes and their US imperialist masters SCAUP also parented and nurtured subsequent national democratic and revolutionary organizations that came to be, including the Communist Party of the Philippines.

From 1951-1961 an anti-communist witch-hunt was being carried out by the Congressional Committee on Anti-Filipino Activities (CAFA) of the Philippine Congress to prevent the spread of progressive ideas by suppressing academic freedom and democratic rights. UP teachers were subpoenaed for investigation charged with publishing communist articles and writings. SCAUP gained national renown when it gained its first big opportunity to organize in a united front with other campus organizations the mass protest in March 15, 1961 opposing the congressional witch hunt conducted by the CAFA against UP faculty members and students who were accused of writing or publishing Marxist materials in violation of the Anti-Subversion Law, including Joma’s Philippine Collegian article “Requiem for Lumumba.” This was the first anti-imperialist and anti-feudal mass protest action after a decade of intense reaction since 1950. Five thousand students surged into the congressional hall to literally scuttle the CAFA hearings, and signified the start of the resurgence of the mass movement after a long hiatus.

Formation of Kabataang Makabayan

As a result of the anti-CAFA mass action, Joma’s UP teaching fellowship was terminated. But he gained the time to do further revolutionary student organizing in several universities albeit clandestinely and encouraged the formation of progressive student organizations nationwide. In 1962, he joined the trade union movement and the Workers’ Party where he did research and education work. As vice chairman for education of the Workers’ Party, he organized seminars for trade unionists from several major labor federations and large independent unions. Then he established the youth department of the Workers’ Party, which would become a source for young workers for Kabataang Makabayan (KM).

As a result of his study and analysis of conditions in Philippine society, Joma wrote articles on land reform and from early 1963 gave refresher courses to peasant leaders and veteran fighters of the old people’s army who recommended their children and other young relatives to become members of KM at the preparatory phase of its founding at the beginning of 1964. Joma led the founding of KM on November 30, 1964.

The young professionals that had been the first to join KM came from the ranks of teachers and eventually from various professions—health professionals, lawyers, scientists, engineers, artists, cultural workers and others—who all became progressives while they were students. 

From 1964 onward, KM became a training school for activists in the national democratic movement for the purpose of arousing, organizing and mobilizing the youth in the schools, factories, farms, communities and offices. The schools for national democracy were instituted at various levels of the KM and in various spheres of work. The emphasis was on training young cadres for the trade union and peasant movement and students and young teachers for rapid nationwide expansion.

The KM became outstanding in mobilizing the youth in mass protest actions against the unequal treaties with the US in the economic and military fields, against new dictates by the US in every field, against the killing of Filipinos in US military bases, against the puppetry of the reactionary regime, against the big compradors and landlords, against oppressive and exploitative school authorities and against the US war of aggression in Vietnam and elsewhere.

Kabataang Makabayan grew all over the country, not only among college students but also among other youth–workers, peasants, and high school students. Discussion groups and schools for national democracy were set up. Joma wrote Struggle for National Democracy (1967) for educating the recruits to Kabataang Makabayan. The articles in the book were written as tools for arousing, organizing and mobilizing the people.
Even from this period of early activism, Joma was a very prolific writer. He could dash off a press statement or a manifesto so quickly that friends joked he had a trunkful of these from where he whipped one out whenever necessary. He was a member of the UP Writers Club, the National Press Club, the Afro-Asian Journalists Association and the Afro-Asian Writers Bureau. He contributed articles to international journals such as the London-based Eastern World and the Hong Kong-based Eastern Horizon. He founded and became editor-in-chief of Progressive Review until he went underground and reestablished the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Back to top

Reestablishment of the Party

While working for the National Association of Trade Unions he received a grant to study Indonesian language and literature in 1962. Indonesia, which at the time had the distinction of being home to the largest communist party outside the socialist bloc (the Partai Komunist Indonesia, or PKI), was an influential environment for the 22-year-old, who learned more about national liberation struggles and Marxism and made friends with PKI leaders and members. 

By this time Joma had caught the attention of Jesus Lava of the old merger party of the Communist and Socialist parties, the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) for his role in the March 14 anti-CAFA demo and his writings for the Philippine Collegian. It was before leaving for Indonesia that Sison was contacted by Lava to recruit him to the PKP. After his return he was invited to form the Executive Committee together with Lava’s nephew, Vicente Lava, Jr. He was appointed in charge of the youth because of his prominent role in the resurgence of the mass movement among the youth and students.

By this time KM had become the largest militant youth organization. Its members had a high level of political education and training for the advance of the national democratic movement. Thus it became a major part of the Lapiang Manggagawa (Workers’ Party) in 1964 and then its successor the Socialist Party of the Philippines (SPP) in 1966, as well as the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism (MAN), a national united front formation formed in 1967. Joma gained experience in trade union work, becoming Vice-President for Education in Lapiang Manggagawa and the general secretary of SPP and MAN on the basis of the well-rounded political and organizational strength of the KM. He also got involved in work among the peasants with MASAKA, a progressive peasant association which was formed outside the scope of the old merger Party. 

At the core of KM were proletarian revolutionary cadres, who had become members of the old merger party and who from year to year became dissatisfied with the growing current of modern revisionism. From 1964 onwards, the proletarian revolutionaries increased and outnumbered the old members of the old merger party. They demanded a rectification movement to criticize the major errors and shortcomings of the old merger party since the 1930s.

Ka Joma drafted a rectification document which the Lava revisionist renegades rejected and opposed and sought to expel the proletarian revolutionaries. The young proletarian revolutionaries and their senior comrades separated from the Lava revisionist renegades in April 1967, intensified the rectification movement (now known as the First Great Rectification Movement) and began preparations for the reestablishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) under the theoretical guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought on December 26, 1968.

Towards the CPP’s founding in 1968, Joma conducted intense ideological, political and organizational work. In preparation for the Congress of the Reestablishment of the CPP and for the organization of the New People’s Army on March 29, 1969, Ka Joma drafted the basic documents that would become the Guide for Cadres and Members of the CPP, which was comprised of “Rectify Errors and Rebuild the Party,” “Program for a People’s Democratic Revolution,” “Constitution of the Communist Party of the Philippines,” “Declaration of the New People’s Army” and the “Rules of the New People’s Army.” Aside from drafting and discussing basic documents, the young proletarian cadres produced revolutionary literary and artistic works to inspire the masses.

Back to top

Early developments under the leadership of the reestablished CPP

The CPP grew rapidly in its first few years under Ka Joma’s leadership. The Party established itself across the country and led the nationwide advance of the revolutionary armed struggle. After going underground in 1968, he personally supervised the political and military training of Party cadres and NPA commanders in the forested region of Isabela from where they were deployed to other regions.

During this time Ka Joma drafted documents essential to the development of the newly reestablished party and the national democratic movement as a whole, as well as serving as editor-in-chief of Ang Bayan in its first years of publication.

In 1970 the first edition of Philippine Society and Revolution (PSR), written in 1969, was published in mimeograph. Widely published in 1971 under Ka Joma’s nom de guerre, Amado Guerrero, this document remains the main educational tool of the national democratic movement.

In April 1971, he presided over the plenum of the Central Committee and presented the “Summing-Up Our Experiences After Three Years (1968-1971).” As a result of this plenum he formulated the Revolutionary Guide to Land Reform (1971) and the Guide to the Establishment of the People’s Democratic Government (1972). The latter would become a foundational document for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), which Ka Joma helped establish on April 24, 1973.

When Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. declared martial law in 1972 in response to the “communist threat” posed by the CPP in order to “nip the revolution in the bud,” the opposite happened: Marcos’ repressive regime became the best recruiter for the revolutionary armed struggle. 

In the underground movement, Ka Joma continued to guide the Party and the NPA in its growth under the brutal fascist martial law regime of dictator Marcos. He issued advisories to underground Party cadres and mass activists. Inspired by the raging people’s war in the countryside, they dared the fascist machinery and carried-out organizing efforts among students and workers.

He prepared in 1974 the “Specific Characteristics of Our People’s War” which authoritatively laid out the strategy and tactics for waging people’s war under the concrete conditions of the Philippines with its archipelagic character and under one imperialist power. Based on this document, the Party, among other measures, embarked on a program of nation-wide expansion by sending out cadres to different parts of the country to open up new areas for the armed struggle. Regional Party committees were also established throughout the country.

In 1975, he authored “Our Urgent Tasks,” containing the Central Committee’s report and program of action. This document laid out the tasks of the Party to confront the fascist dictatorship imposed by the US-Marcos regime on the  Filipino people.  It effectively guided the Party and the movement to achieve comprehensive advance in revolutionary work both in the cities and the countryside during the entire period of the US-Marcos dictatorship.  

Back to top

Arrest and detention

Ka Joma continued to lead the Party in nationwide growth until 1977 when he and Julie were arrested while in transit from one guerrilla zone to another. He was presented by the AFP to Marcos as a trophy. Marcos at first to humor him by saying that he had studied Joma’s writings and by talking to him in Ilokano. When Joma rejected Marcos’ overtures, he ordered Joma to be taken away and dealt with by his torturers.

He was detained, subjected to severe torture, put under solitary confinement for more than five years interrupted only by joint confinement with Julie in 1980-1981, and later partial solitary confinement with one or two other political prisoners from 1982-1985. He was subjected to the worst forms of physical and mental torture but far from breaking him, it only steeled him even more. 

While in prison, Ka Joma was able to maintain contact with the Party leadership and revolutionary forces outside through clandestine methods of communication. With the collaboration of Ka Julie, lifelong partner and comrade of Ka Joma, they produced important letters and advisories. In 1983, Ka Julie released the article JMS “On the Mode of Production” which served as a theoretical elucidation and clarification of the nature of the semicolonial and semifeudal social system in order to cast away confusion brought about by claims of industrialization by the US-Marcos dictatorship. It counterattacked claims made by pretenders to socialism who insisted that the Philippines had become a developing capitalist country under the fascist dictatorship.

A powerful upsurge of the antifascist movement propelled by the revolutionary forces followed when Marcos had his intrasystemic rival Benigno Aquino assassinated in 1983. It pushed the US Pentagon together with the US State Department and other US agencies to drop Marcos. It was Ka Joma’s well circulated paper “On the Losing Course of the Armed Forces of the Philippines” written under the pseudonym Patnubay Liwanag that swayed such a course of action taken by the aforementioned US agencies even as this entailed a split within the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

Ka Joma also asserted the need to weaken the reactionary armed strength in the countryside and expand the people’s army to a critical mass 25,000 rifles and one guerrilla platoon per municipality as constructive criticism of the plan to carry out a “strategic counter-offensive.” The anti-fascist upsurge culminated in a people’s uprising supported by a military rebellion of elements in the reactionary AFP. The Party’s persevering and solid leadership of the anti-fascist movement and revolutionary armed struggle created favorable conditions that led to the overthrow the US-Marcos dictatorship in 1986. Despite strong opposition by the US and reactionary defense establishment, the Aquino regime was compelled to order the release of Ka Joma from prison. 

Upon release, Ka Joma immediately resumed revolutionary activities delivering a series of ten lectures at the Asian Institute of the University of the Philippines (what would later comprise the volume Philippine Crisis and Revolution) clarifying the nature of the regime of the new president as the same pro-US reactionary regime but with a liberal democratic facade; setting up Partido ng Bayan, a political party to participate in elections openly advocating a program for national liberation and democracy; going on a worldwide lecture tour, starting with Singapore in June 1986 and ending in The Netherlands the following year.

It was while on this speaking tour abroad that the Cory Aquino government, due to pressure from the US and local reactionaries, cancelled Ka Joma’s passport in 1987, forcing him to seek political asylum in The Netherlands.

Back to top

Life in exile

Second Great Rectification Movement

While in exile, Ka Joma continued to provide strategic leadership to the Party and revolutionary movement based on reports from the Party leadership based in the Philippines.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s a number of key leaders of the Party were drawn to the self-destructive path of insurrectionism, premature regularization and military adventurism. These tendencies were based on the erroneous analysis of the mode of production  and classes in Philippine society which was then used to attack and do away with the established and successful strategy of protracted people’s war.

By the late 1980s, these wrong tendencies were resulting in serious damage to the revolution which necessitated the launching of the Second Great Rectification Movement.  Based on the reports of the Party leadership in the Philippines, Ka Joma led in preparing the key document of the rectification movement “Reaffirm Our Basic Principles and Rectify Errors” which the 10th Plenum of the CPP Central Committee approved in 1992.  Ka Joma also authored the document “Stand for Socialism Against Modern Revisionism” to guide the Party and the revolutionary movement in understanding the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the countries of the Eastern bloc to debunk the myths being spread by the western imperialist powers about the “death of socialism” and capitalism as the “end of history.”

International work

Ka Joma played an important role in developing the international work of the Party. He led the Party’s delegation in high-level bilateral meetings with avowed proletarian parties to engage in theoretical discussions, exchange experiences and to find common grounds for cooperation and mutual support.

He led the Party’s delegation in international conferences which were organized to discuss theoretical and practical questions confronting the international communist movement.

Together with several fraternal and friendly Parties, he led the founding of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle as a broad anti-imperialist and democratic alliance alliance of mass organizations to arouse, organize and mobilize the people of the world against the US-led imperialist system of exploitation, oppression and wars.

As part of the US global war on terror under George W. Bush, Ka Joma was put on the US list of “foreign terrorists”.  Ka Joma was seen by the US as a threat to its vital interests in the Asia Pacific.  Ths Philippines has a strategic importance in the US’s scheme to to contain China and maintain its dominant position in the Asia Pacific which was under threat from the active armed revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines. The US pressured the Dutch government to arrest Ka Joma on trumped up charges in 2007. The Dutch authorities, however, were forced to release Ka Joma  after more than 15 days in prison for lack of evidence.  The Dutch authorities also could not ignore the mass actions around the world demanding Ka Joma’s release.

The “terrorist” tag did not gain traction within the Filipino migrant community. Ka Joma was well respected and accepted by the Filipino migrant community in the Netherlands. He was respected because of his high reputation in Philippines politics. He was also accepted because he interacted with Filipino migrants like any normal person joining birthday parties, engaging in karaoke sessions, yearning for mangoes but settling for ice cream because that was what was readily available, and so on. 

Joma continued to write the anniversary statements for the CPP, NPA and NDFP until 2022. For the CPP Second Congress he drafted the new Program for the People’s Democratic Revolution and the revised CPP Constitution. He enjoined the Congress to wage a rectification campaign to combat currents of conservatism which had started to creep among revolutionary ranks.

Peace negotiations

In the peace negotiations between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), Ka Joma was appointed as Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, a position he fulfilled from 1992 until his death. Under his guidance, the panel truly represented the interests of the Filipino people and the revolutionary movement. 

As Chief Consultant of the NDFP panel in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, Ka Joma played a key role in drafting the Hague Joint Declaration that laid down the fundamental guiding principles in the peace negotiations which ensured that the negotiations would avoid the pitfalls that befell some revolutionary movements leading to their subsequent capitulation.

He enunciated the policy that for the revolutionary movement the goal of the peace negotiations is the same as the goal of the national democratic revolution.

Throughout the peace negotiations, he provided masterful guidance to the NDFP panel effectively turning the peace negotiations into another arena of struggle in which to advance the Filipino people’s cause of national and social liberation and to address the people’s aspiration for a just and lasting peace.

Back to top

Passing and legacy

Ka Joma died peacefully on December 16, 2022, after a period of confinement in a hospital in Utrecht, The Netherlands. A month before his passing he had started discussing with Ka Julie the outline and writing of what would be his last message to the Filipino masses and revolutionary forces, “The Filipino People’s Democratic Revolution is Invincible.” Until his very last breath, he was still talking about ensuring that the revolution would win victory and advance to socialism. With his last thoughts he remained optimistic about the Filipino people whom he served with utmost determination.

Additional resources

To learn more about Jose Maria Sison’s life in further detail, please consider reading the following resources:

Communist Party of the Philippines, Central Committee. “Resolution of the Second Congress of the Communist Party of the Philippines.” Ang Bayan Special Issue (December 26, 2022): 15-21. https://philippinerevolution.nu/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Jose-Maria-Sison-83.pdf

Sison, Jose Maria and Rainer Werning. Reflections on Revolution and Prospects. International Network for Philippine Studies, 2019.

Sison, Jose Maria and Ninotchka Rosca. At Home in the World: Portrait of a Revolutionary. Open Hand Publishing, 2004.

Sison, Jose Maria and Rainer Werning. The Philippine Revolution: The Leader’s View. Crane Russak, 1989.

Back to top