Jose Maria Sison, Filipino activist and theorist
Jose Maria Canlas Sison (born February 8, 1939), also known by his nickname Joma, is a Filipino writer and activist who founded the Communist Party of the Philippines and added elements of Maoism to its philosophy — which would be known as national democracy. He applied the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the history and current circumstances of the Philippines.
Since August 2002, he has been classified as a "person supporting terrorism" by the United States. The European Union's second highest court ruled in September 2009 to delist him as a "person supporting terrorism" and reversed a decision by member governments to freeze his assets. Sison has been a recognized political refugee in the Netherlands since 1988 and is in the protection of the Refugee Convention and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.