NSC welcomes Reds' admission on death of Tiamzons
The National Security Council, headed by Secretary Eduardo Ano, welcomed a confirmation made by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on the death of the Tiamzon couple.
"We welcome the confirmation by the CPP-NPA-NDF of the death of top terrorist leaders Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon last August 2022. Benito Tiamzon was the chairman of the CPP Executive Committee and Wilma Tiamzon was the CPP’s secretary general," he said in a statement on Wednesday.
The NDF is the National Democratic Front, political arm of the CPP, while the New People's Army (NPA), is the CPP's armed wing.
Ano said authorities "have long suspected that they have been killed in a clash with government forces last year."
"Finally, the terrorists have been forced to admit what many of us have suspected many, many months ago. With the death of CPP founder Jose Maria Sison and now the Tiamzon couple, the Communist Terrorist Group is now headless with no clear national leadership," he said.
"They have lost both their guiding light in the person of Joma and their commander in the Tiamzons and are now groping in the dark with no direction nor future in sight," he added.
However, Ano denies the accusation of CPP against the alleged "brutal torture and cowardly killing" of Tiamzon couple with eight other revolutionaries after they were captured in Samar province on August 21, 2022.
"As is their practice, the terrorists’ propaganda machinery has concocted and fabricated an elaborate story which even implicates the United States in their deaths in order to squeeze whatever propaganda value they can muster from their deaths," he said.
"They are now trapped in their own web of lies which deserves scant comment. Needless to say, there is no truth whatsoever in this clearly fabricated story and we stand by the official reports from the Armed Forces of the Philippines," he added.
Ano noted that the "death of the Tiamzons is just the latest in the string of defeats that show the clear decimation of Communist terrorism in our country which includes the recent arrest of notorious terrorist Eric Jun Casilao in Langkawi, Malaysia in a successful joint law enforcement operation with the Malaysian authorities."
"Casilao, like the Tiamzons, is a Central Committee member of CPP-NPA-NDF and is Secretary of the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee (SMRC) wanted for murder, kidnapping, and a string of other crimes," he said.
Ano said just like the Tiamzons, Casilao "is a notorious NPA leader who orchestrated numerous terrorist activities in the Davao region". Robina Asido/DMS
