Jose Maria Sison

José María Canlás Sison (February 8, 1939 – December 16, 2022) is a writer and activist. He founded the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Sison was arrested during the Ferdinand Marcos presidency. He was imprisoned for almost 9 years. Corazón Aquino released him from prison. Sison went into exile in the Netherlands.
His experience in prison was described in "Prison &amp; Beyond", a book of poetry released in 1986. It won the Southeast Asia WRITE award for the Philippines.
On December 16, 2022, the Communist Party of the Philippines alongside its news organ "Ang Bayan" announced the death of Jose Maria Sison after two weeks of confinement in a hospital in Utrecht, Netherlands.