Military to help build 'strong' case vs Tiamzons

MANILA, Philippines - The military is confident that the cases against communist leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon are strong despite criticisms that their arrest was illegal.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Maj. Gen. Domingo Tutaan Jr. stressed that the arrest was based on a warrant issued by a local court against the couple.

“The Tiamzons were accorded their rights. These are the rights accorded to persons who are detained and are being investigated,” Tutaan said in a press briefing Monday.

“We are confident because due process of law was followed when the arrest was made,” he added.

Tutaan said they are ready to help government prosecutors build a strong case against the Tiamzons, said to be the highest leaders of the communist movement in the country.

“We will contribute things like testimonies of witnesses, soldiers and victims of atrocities plus reports on what they have undertaken. We will be contributing this to the prosecution,” the military spokesman said.

Benito and Wilma Tiamzon are facing 15 counts of murder and were arrested by virtue of a warrant issued by a regional trial court in Leyte.

Benito is the chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) while his wife Wilma is the group’s secretary-general. The two along with five other rebels were nabbed by security forces on Saturday at around 3:15 p.m. in Barangay Zaragosa, in Aloguinsan town.

Some groups, however, claim that the arrest of the Tiamzons was illegal.

Lawyers of the couple said their clients should not have been arrested because they are covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). The agreement provides communist leaders working as peace consultants immunity from arrest.

The National Democratic Front (NDF), which represents the communists in the peace negotiations with the government, said the arrest was a “flagrant violation of the JASIG.”

“The NDF vigorously demands that Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria be immediately and unconditionally released,” the group said in a statement.

The Communist Party of the Philippines, the political arm of the rebels, said the Aquino regime should accord the Tiamzons the right to counsel and medical attention. It claimed that Wilma has severe asthma and suffers both from a serious kidney ailment and spinal bone degeneration secondary to osteoporosis.

“Their arrest forms part of the general trend of repression under the Aquino regime,” CPP said.

CPP: AFP chief self-delusional

Meanwhile, the CPP refuted the military’s claims that the arrest of the Tiamzons would spell doom for the armed struggle.

“AFP chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista is self-delusional in believing that NPA (New People’s Army) Red fighters and revolutionaries would respond to his calls for them to surrender to the Aquino regime,” the group said in a statement.

Bautista earlier expressed hopes that the apprehension of the Tiamzons will prod the insurgents to abandon the armed struggle.

CPP claimed that the deteriorating conditions in the country have prodded hundreds of people to join the NPA.

“With such deep-rooted causes for the armed conflict, the Aquino regime and the AFP are indeed hallucinating if they believe that the Tiamzons’ arrest will cause the armed struggle to dissipate,” it said.

“It is also hilarious for them to claim that the arrests will cause the revolutionary movement to become rudderless and too disorganized to sustain itself and pursue its objectives,” it added.

Military officials previously said the capture of the Tiamzons would result in a leadership vacuum in the rebel movement. CPP, however, said it has a system of orderly succession in place.

The group claims to have over 150,000 dedicated cadres, with 15 regional committees, scores of sub-regional leading committees, more than 110 front committees and thousands of sections and branch committees.

“Through its central and regional leadership organs, the CPP will continue to lead the New People’s Army in waging extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare in order to further advance the people’s war,” the group said.