CPP-NPA CHIEF, WIFE NABBED IN CEBU

MANILA (3rd UPDATE) – Couple Wilma and Benito Tiamzon, leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), were arrested Saturday afternoon in Cebu.

They were nabbed by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Barangay Zaragosa, Aluginsan in Carcar, Cebu.

According to a statement sent to ABS-CBN by Gen. Emmanuel T. Bautista, chief of staff of the AFP, Wilma Tiamzon is the secretary-general of the CPP-NPA while her husband, Benito, is the chairman of the CPP-NPA.

The Tiamzons, Bautista said, were arrested by virtue of a warrant of arrest for their crimes against humanity that include murder, multiple murders, and frustrated murder issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 31 in Laoang, Northern Samar.

Four others, also believed to be leaders of the rebel group, were arrested along with the couple.

They are currently undergoing processing and documentation for legal disposition, Bautista said.

The arrest of the Tiamzons, according to Bautista, is another victory for the combined efforts of the AFP, PNP and other stakeholders in the pursuit of peace and security.

“We will then continue to strengthen our resolve to bring other criminals to justice in honor of the victims of the violence perpetrated by the CPP-NPA, and in honor of our people who deserve to live in a peaceful and developed society. We call on to the rest of the CPP-NPA members to lay down their arms, abandon the armed struggle and return to the comfort of their families and join us in bringing peace and development to our nation,” Bautista said.

The Maoist rebellion has claimed 30,000 lives according to government estimates.

Though the CPP’s armed wing, the NPA, is down to about 4,000 guerrillas from more than 26,000 in the late 1980s, the rebels continue to pose a threat according to the government.

The rebels frequently ambush or raid small military and police units, as well as extort money from rural businesses, military officials say.

In April last year, President Benigno Aquino’s government announced that the peace talks being brokered by Norway had collapsed, dampening hopes of a political settlement before the president’s six-year term ends in mid-2016.

Manila has since asked Oslo to help the Philippine government convince the rebels to return to the negotiating table.

Bautista did not say how the arrests of the two top communist leaders would impact on the prospects for renewed peace talks.

The Aquino government is scheduled to sign a peace treaty on March 27 with the largely Catholic country’s largest Muslim guerrilla group, ending the country’s other long-running rebellion that had claimed 150,000 lives in the south.

‘Illegal arrest’

Meanwhile, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), in its website, said it condemns in the strongest terms the illegal arrest of Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria by the Aquino regime’s security forces in Carcar, Cebu.

“Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria are NDFP Consultants who have fulfilled and are fulfilling highly significant tasks in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP/GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP),” the NDFP said in their statement.

Austria, the NDFP said, is a holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND978226 under her real name. She is holder of the Letter of Acknowledgment signed by then GRP Negotiating Panel Chairman Silvestre H. Bello III which states: “The above named person is entitled to the safety and immunity guarantees asprovided under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) for the duration of the peace negotiations. You are hereby required to facilitate the safe conduct and free passage of the above named person.”

Tiamzon, they said, is likewise the holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND 978227 under the assumed name “Crising Banaag”. He is likewise holder of a Letter of Acknowledgment signed by then GRP Negotiating Panel Chairman Silvestre H. Bello III.

The NDFP vigorously demands that Tiamzon and Austria be immediately and unconditionally released.

“This latest flagrant violation of the JASIG by the Aquino regime, in addition to so many other gross violations of the JASIG, most seriously prejudices the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations,” they said.

— with Agence France-Presse