EXILED Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison backed down from his “word war” with President Rodrigo Duterte and clarified a previous boast about how the New People’s Army (NPA) could kill one soldier a day, saying he was not authorized to give such an order.

“I have always made clear that I am not in any position to issue any kind of order to the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People´s Army,” Sison said in a statement on Thursday.