Communist leaders’ death confirmed
Benito and Wilma Tiamzon were respectively president and general secretary of the Communist Party pf the Philippines (CPP). The Philippine military claims that they were killed in a shootout, but the CPP says they were tortured to death. More than 43,000 people died between 1969 and 2008 as a result of fighting between Marxist rebels and government forces.
Manila (AsiaNews) – Sources within the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today confirmed the killing of Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, respectively party president and general secretary, after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) announced their death, which occurred during an armed clash in August 2022.
Speaking about the event, the AFP expressed satisfaction, celebrating it as a victory in the long and brutal confrontation with Marxist-inspired rebels that has marked the modern history of the country.
While acknowledging the Tiamzons’ death, the CPP has accused the AFP of torturing and summarily executing the couple in violation of international law.
According to a spokesman for the Party’s central committee, the two were captured with other militants during a military action on the island of Samar, severely beaten and, once killed, loaded onto a boat that was blown up.
Responding to the charge, an AFP spokesman said that such “allegations of capture and torture are part of their (CPP) propaganda and an attempt to deceive the Filipino people”.
Instead, “the August 2022 operation was a legitimate encounter acting on information that VIPs of CPP-NPA were escaping from ongoing military operations,” the spokesman added.
At present, notwithstanding the Central Committee, the CCP and its allies are without leaders after the party's historic leader, Jose Maria Sison, died last December in exile in the Netherlands.
This situation makes it harder for the government and the CPP to engage in talks, which were interrupted under former President Rodrigo Duterte, who was replaced last year by current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
In 2018, the Philippine Department of Justice called for the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), to be banned under the National Security Act, a request rejected by a court in Manila before the legislation was repealed.
Last year, right-wing groups called for the dissolution of the CPP, its armed wing, and a coalition of openly revolutionary groups, like the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, for organised conspiracy to overthrow the Philippine government.
Created 54 years ago, the NPA has probably led the longest communist-inspired, non-Maoist armed rebellion in the world.
It is estimated that more than 43,000 people have died between 1969 and 2008 as a result of fighting between rebels and government forces.
In the past 15 years, fighting dropped in intensity, but it never stopped.
For its part, although weakened and smaller, the NPA continues to control certain parts of the country.
Both the NPA and the CPP have been used as a pretext by security forces to indiscriminately and even illegally crack down on groups or individuals who criticise the government.
.png)
