Benito Tiamzon, chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), his wife, Wilma, and five others were arrested by government security forces in southern Cebu, yesterday afternoon.
A highly placed military source earlier told the Inquirer that the authorities were ascertaining if one of the men arrested with Wilma, reportedly the secretary-general of the CPP-NPA, was her husband, Benito.
A text message sent to media by the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) later confirmed Benito’s identity.
The military said they were on board a Hyundai Starex van and a Toyota Innova van when intercepted by the authorities in barangay Aloguinsan in Carcar City at 3:15 p.m.
A statement attributed to AFP chief-of-staff, Gen. Emmanuel Bautista at past 10 p.m. saidthat they were nabbed at sitio Zaragosa in Aloguinsan town.
The Tiamzons were served warrants of arrest for murder and frustrated murder issued by the Northern Samar Regional Trial Court.
Military sources in the AFP Central Command earlier said there was an “ongoing major operation” since yesterday morning, but refused to provide details.
Another military source said those arrested were taken to Camp Lapu-Lapu in Cebu City. There were also reports that an ambulance was used to transport the Tiamzons.
Benito Tiamzon together with Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos are among the country’s most wanted high-profile fugitives.
President Aquino earlier said there is an existing P5.6 million reward for any information leading to the arrest of the CPP-NPA leaders.
Others in the “most wanted” list are retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes, and former Dinagat Rep. Reuben Ecleo Jr.
Property developer Delfin Lee, who was in the list, was arrested early this month by a special police unit – Task Force Tugis – which was formed to zero in on the high-profile fugitives.
The head of the task force, Senior Supt. Conrad Capa, was ordered transferred to the Police Regional Office-7, a move he publicly resented.
The announcement of Tiamzon’s arrest came two days after Capa assumed his post at PRO-7.
On Wednesday, the President said another high-profile fugitive will soon be arrested following the capture of Lee.
“I can promise you that you will be surprised once the manhunt operations succeed,” Aquino said.
“I cannot give details yet because the fugitive might notice that he is the one who is about to be arrested and he gives us the slip anew.”
IN-CHARGE
An online search for personal information on the Tiamzon couple drew nearly blank. Benito was said to be an urban poor scholar who graduated from the University of the Philippines with a degree in Sociology.
The government panel involved in the peace negotiations with the NDF last year said Benito and Wilma are the ones calling the shots in the local communist movement.
In May last year, then chief government negotiator Alexander Padilla announced that it may drop communist leaders Jose Maria Sison and Luis Jalandoni when it resumes peace talks with the communists.
Quoting intelligence reports, Padilla, who now heads the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., said Sison and Jalandoni, who are based in The Netherlands, were no longer in charge of the CPP-NPA-NDF, and it is actually the husband-and-wife tandem who are in charge.
“Who is in charge? Well, intelligence reports say that the Tiamzon spouses are in charge,” Padilla said during a forum hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.
Presidential peace adviser Teresita “Ging” Deles said there were new “dynamics” within the communist movement.
“The report is that there are dynamics and there are things that are happening with the movement now. How this eventually settles itself, we don’t know,” Deles said.
“One of the things that we have that has really come forward in the consultations is the need to examine and assess who we are talking to and therefore this [whether to still talk to Sison or not] is a question that will certainly be seriously studied,” she added.
Sison, writing in his autobiography The Philippine Revolution, said he and Tiamzon were members of the CPP’s Political Bureau, the party’s executive panel, in 1989. Tiamzon was also the acting chairman if the Politburo in 1987. Tiamzon’s wife, Wilma, Ricardo Reyes and Romulo Kintanar
However, Sison and Tiamzon reportedly got estranged in the succeeding years, when he supported the moves within the communist movement to participate in the elections, with Tiamzon choosing to maintain the party’s vision of relying on armed struggle.
According to National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia NPA ground commanders respected the Tiamzon couple for remaining firm in continuing with the armed struggle.
“The general belief is that those based in the Philippines are exercising leadership. It is strange for a leader to be out of the country, and that is how the Tiamzon couple is able to exercise effective leadership,” Garcia said in a 2013 interview.
The pronouncements made by the government negotiators prompted Sison to fire back and accused the government of sowing intrigue to hide the real reason why the communists unilaterally scuttled the 22-year-old peace talks.
In a statement, Sison admitted that he was simply a political consultant of the National Democratic Front and the decisions involving the Communist Party and its New People’s Army were being made by CPP chairman Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma./with Inquirer reports