Jose Maria Sison

José María Canlás Sison (born February 8, 1939) is a Filipino writer and activist who founded the Communist Party of the Philippines and added elements of Maoism to its philosophy.

Since August 2002, he has been classified as a "person supporting terrorism" by the United States. The European Union's second highest court ruled to delist him as a "person supporting terrorism" and reversed a decision by member governments to freeze assets.

Personal life
Sison met his wife, Julie de Lima, when both studied at UP Diliman. Attending the same study groups, they grew closer and married in 1960. The couple had four children. Their youngest daughter was born in 1981 in prison.

Through his wife Julie de Lima, Sison is the uncle of Leila de Lima, now a Senator, and the former secretary of Philippine Department of Justice under the Administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III.

He currently has colon cancer.

Exile
Sison went into exile in the Netherlands after the Marcos regime ended. He had already been released from prison by the government of Corazón Aquino for the sake of "national reconciliation" and for his role in opposing Marcos. The release of Sison was vehemently protested by the military. It is reported that upon his release, Sison and his followers actively sought to discredit the Aquino government in the European media by speaking out on Aquino's human rights violations including the Mendiola Massacre, in which members of the military were accused of firing on unarmed peasants in Manila, killing 17 people.

He is the chairperson of the International League of Peoples' Struggle, and the current Chief Political Consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. Since 1987, Sison has resided in the Netherlands where he is seeking asylum as a political refugee. A 2004 court ruling by the European Union endangers the residency status of Sison in Europe and he is expected to be expelled. He has been charged with orchestrating the 2001 murder of Congressman Rodolfo Aguinaldo in the Philippines. There has even been speculation the revocation of the death penalty in that country was in part to convince the Netherlands he could safely be deported, as he would have been facing the death penalty if convicted.