Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said he still believes that the province is “insurgent-free” despite the arrest of two of the leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Aloguinsan town last Saturday.
The governor said that Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, two top leaders of the communist movement only took refuge in the province to lay low, according to information he received from the provincial police.
Tiamzon and his wife, Wilma, the current chairman of the CPP-NPA and secretary-general respectively, were not on a recruiting mission for the rebels, he said.
However, he admitted that he was surprised about the arrest, saying he did not know about the Tiamzons’ presence until their capture in barangay Zaragosa in Aloguinsan, south Cebu last Saturday.
In March 2010, Cebu was declared insurgency free after the military declared that all of the 44 municipalities and eight component cities of Cebu are now free of New People Army’s (NPA) influence.
Davide said this declaration must have been the factor that enticed the couple to hide in Cebu, a place which they thought could have attracted the least suspicion.
SAFE HOUSE
The house in San Fernando town believed to be where the CPP-NPA leaders lived has a welcoming lawn in front of a long stretch of a white fence, with a visible cable TV satellite dish attached to a pole on the far end.
From the outside, two nipa huts were visible. One beside the home, and the other behind it. Enclosed within the fence are two other huts located behind the house.
According to a neighbor, the house is located in a lot estimated to be 1,600 square meters.
When Cebu Daily News visited the house in sitio Bulok-bulok, barangay Sangat, San Fernando, the house was empty, showing no signs of life inside, but for the presence of two dogs.
A neighbor said she noticed people move in the said house on January of last year, but said they didn’t really go out “Kuan na sila diha 3 ka lalaki unya 3 ka babaye,” she said. “Di mana sila makig-mingle. Sa sulod ra gyud na sila,” another woman chimed in. (There were 3 men and 3 women there. But they do not mingle with us. They just stay inside.)
One neighbor even said that some of them thought the occupants worked in a call center.
The gardener, Manang Ester, said she did not have much contact with the house’s occupants. She said one woman named “Nona” preferred to be called “doktora”, and one guy who called himself “John” claimed to work in an office.
She said she had not noticed the Tiamzons until recently. “Di pod ko makasulti kung kanus-a gyud ko kita ana nila, basta wala pa’y tuig,” she said. (I cannot say when, but less than a year.)
RED ALERT
Retaliatory attacks are a possibility, so police and the military are gearing up for the likelihood by declaring a red alert status after the arrest of the top-ranked communist rebels.
Maj. Gen. John Bonafos, commander of the Central Command, said they have been on red alert since Saturday.
“This is part of the anniversary of the militant groups on March 29,” said Bonafos.
Bonafos and other officials of the Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (CentCom) visited Davide in his office yesterday to give him a security briefing.
Chief Supt. Danilo Constantino, chief of Police Regional Office (PRO)-7, declared the entire region on a heightened alert status after the couple was arrested in Cebu.
“We expect they may plan retaliatory acts after the arrest of the Tiamzons, that is why our intelligence operatives, battalion commanders and operations officers are mandated to observe unusual movements,” Constantino said.