The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) officially confirmed on Thursday the deaths of its two highest leaders, Benito Tiamzon and his wife, Wilma, even as the outlawed group accused the military of allegedly holding them captives, torturing and killing them, along with 10 others.
The deaths of the couple were confirmed by Marco Valbuena, chief information officer of the CPP in a statement, and belied the earlier claims of the Armed Forces of the Philippines that the Tiamzons “could” have been killed in a boat explosion during a clash with soldiers in Samar last year.
The military, through its public affairs office chief, Col. Jorry Baclor, is yet to issue a statement on the claims of Valbuena. Baclor said he is still waiting for “approval” from higher ups on the release of the military statement.
Valbuena said that according to the CPP’s political bureau, the Tiamzons were traveling on two separate vans along the national highway “eastwards towards Catbalogan City” on August 21, 2022, when they were apprehended by soldiers.
The CPP said, “they were flagged down between 12:00 noon and 1:00 in the afternoon, after which all communications with the group were lost,” adding “they were unarmed.”
Valbuena said that at the time of the “murder,” Benito, 71, was the chairman of the CPP executive committee, while Wilma, 70, was the CPP’s secretary general.
At the time of their capture, the two “were traveling with Ka Divino [Joel Arceo], a sub-regional secretary in Eastern Visayas, along with Ka Yen, Ka Jaja, Ka Matt, Ka Ash, Ka Delfin, Ka Lupe, Ka Butig [Catbalogan 10], who all belonged to the guerrilla force of the central headquarters,” according to Valbuena.
“The entire leadership and membership of the Communist Party of the Philippines condemns in the strongest terms the Armed Forces of the Philippines for the brutal torture and cowardly killing of Party leaders Benito Tiamzon (Ka Laan) and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon (Ka Bagong-tao), together with eight other revolutionaries after they were captured in Samar province on August 21, 2022,” Valbuena said.
The military said last year that a boat bearing armed men exploded on August 21, 2022, in Catbalogan City, Samar, during its interdiction operation. While reports initially claimed that the Tiamzons were among the occupants of the boat, these could not be confirmed by the military.
Two weeks later, the military said it was still subjecting the remains to DNA tests to ascertain their identities.
The lag in confirming the killings of the couple was explained by Valbuena.
“It explained that it took several weeks to establish the veracity of the reports which the Armed Forces of the Philippines released around that time. It also had to conduct months of investigation to piece together the details of the capture and subsequent massacre of the Tiamzons,” he said.
“According to the information gathered by the Central Committee, the Tiamzons suffered severe beating in the hands of their captors. Internal reports cited witnesses who saw how the faces and bodies of the victims were smashed, apparently beaten with hard objects,” he added.
Valbuena added: “The claimed mid-sea firefight and explosion were all a drama hatched by the AFP and its US military advisers, to hide all evidence of the ignominy of their fascist crime. In truth, the already lifeless bodies of the Tiamzons and their group were dumped on a motorboat filled with explosives, and tugged from Catbalogan midway towards Taranganan Island before it was detonated. Only eight bodies were subsequently retrieved by the military.”
Image credits: Berit Roald/NTB scanpix via AP