The alleged torture of the Tiamzon couple that led to their death was just a propaganda against the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), a military official said on Friday.

In a statement, Col. Medel Aguilar, AFP spokesperson, said the allegations of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) are part of their "propaganda and an attempt to deceive the Filipino people."

Benito Tiamzon was CPP executive committee chairman while his wife Wilma was CPP secretary general. They, along with eight others, were reported dead in a 2022 boat explosion during an alleged exchange of fire in Samar.

"What happened in the August 2022 operation was a legitimate encounter acting on information that VIPs of CPP-NPA were escaping from ongoing military operations," he said.

"The AFP maintains that the operation succeeded, with the CPP-NPA-NDF's confirmation of their casualties. The alleged death of the Tiamzon couple and their Chairman Emeritus Jose Maria Sison in December 2022 only reveals the vacuum in the organizational and ideological leadership of the Communist Party. The leadership vacuum, therefore, leaves the underground movement without a sense of strategic and operational directions and the reason for its existence," he said.

Aguilar stressed that the "recent CPP-NPA-NDF's declaration of the demise of the Tiamzon couple, if indeed true, was the success of government operations against the fugitives of the law, as they confirmed in their statement that these personalities have important positions in the (communist terrorist group) CTG organization."

"We have long suspected the death of CPP Chairman Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma during their armed encounter with government troops on August 22, 2022 in the seas of Catbalogan City, Samar, but we did not have the evidence to confirm it," he said. Robina Asido/DMS