Jose Maria Sison, the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, whose armed wing has been waging one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies, has died. He was 83. Sison died peacefully late on Friday after two weeks of confinement in a hospital in Utrecht, the Netherlands, the party’s spokesman, Marco Valbuena, said in a statement on Saturday. The cause of death was not disclosed in the statement.

Sison had lived in self-exile in The Netherlands since then-President Corazon Aquino released him from detention in 1986, shortly after the People Power revolt overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the father and namesake of the current Philippine president. Sison died 10 days before the party he founded in 1968 was marking its 54th anniversary on December 26.