EXILED Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison on Monday slammed Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana for “denying” that the New People’s Army (NPA) has “grown and gained strength” nationwide by calling them a “failure.”

“Lorenzana mocks the NPA as supposedly a failure in waging armed revolution. But he obscures and denies the fact that against tremendous odds, the NPA has grown and gained strength nationwide from its modest beginnings in the second district of Tarlac, with only nine automatic rifles and 26 single-shot rifles and handguns,” Sison said in a statement.