Pro-Marcos vlogger Coach Jarret has claimed without proof that Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairperson Jose Maria “Joma” Sison had been earning P6 billion annually from the operations of the party and its armed wing, the New People’s Army.
In a broadcast on Dec. 17 on his YouTube channel, Coach Jarret said at the 21:01 mark:
Kasi ayaw niya (Sison) naman kasi talaga ng peace, sa totoo lang. Ang laki-laki ng kinikita niya taon-taon sa mga criminal activities niya… six billion pesos a year. Ba’t mo isusuko ‘yun, ‘di ba? Ayaw niya kasi talagang gawin ‘yun (Because he [Sison] doesn’t really want peace, to be honest. He earns tons of money annually from his criminal activities… six billion pesos a year. Why would you give that up, right? He doesn’t really want to do that).
Coach Jarret did not substantiate or provide specific details of the “criminal activities” and the sums he alleged Sison had been earning from these.
In a virtual press briefing held by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict in August 2021, officials said the communist organizations had collected P5.4 billion mainly from foreign donors. But the figure it cited referred to not just Sison but the entire movement, and spanned not just one but three years, from 2016 to 2018.
National Intelligence Coordinating Agency Director General Alex Paul Monteagudo said at the 46:02 mark:
We have an estimate here sa aming records [that] between 2016 to 2018, they (CPP) were able to collect about 5.4 billion [pesos], which is about 1.8 billion [pesos] a year, but that’s as far as we know. We don’t know all their collections yet.
Anti-Money Laundering Council Deputy Director Emet Manantan said the figure was based on bank documents and information gathered from foreign intelligence agencies and witnesses involved in the transactions.
CPP has never disclosed how much these finances and resources were.
According to Section 2, Article XI of the CPP’s Constitution, the party maintains its operations “by membership fees and monthly dues, by productive undertakings of the Party, by special assessments, by a share in the income, properties and inheritance of members, and by unconditional contributions and by fundraising campaigns.”
The unfounded claim was made a day after Sison passed away after a two-week confinement in a hospital in Utrecht, Netherlands. He was 83.
Coach Jarret, whose real name is Jarret Pulido, is the former president of the United Vloggers and Influencers of the Philippines (UVIP), a group formed by pro-Marcos vloggers to seek accreditation to Malacañang, but the group was not formally recognized.
He stepped down from his post in October, citing academic responsibilities in a Facebook post. UVIP disbanded shortly after.
The YouTube stream has gained 44,874 views and 751 comments as of writing. Coach Jarret has over 200,000 subscribers. (LB)