The Communist Party of the Philippines say their top leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon along with eight rebels were tortured and killed by the military in August last year. (Photo: Twitter)
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has accused the country’s military of torture and murder of two senior leaders and eight members of its armed wing last August and brushed off earlier claims they were killed in a conflict.
In a statement on April 20, the CPP’s chief information officer Marco Valbuena said the leaders and members of the party condemn “in the strongest terms” the Armed Forces for “the brutal torture and cowardly killing” of leaders Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon together with eight other revolutionaries after they were captured in Samar province on August 21, 2022.
The party also claimed the killings were carried out with the backing of US military advisers.
At the time of the murder, Benito, 71, was the chairman, and Wilma, 70, was secretary general of the party’s executive committee, the statement said.
The couple, former members of the party’s peace negotiating panel, were traveling in two separate vans with the members of the National Peoples’ Army (NPA), the armed wing of the party, toward Catbalogan city when they were captured and then murdered, Valbuena said.
He claimed it took months to investigate and piece together all the details of the capture and massacre.
Before the couple was captured, they were convicted in a case of kidnapping three military officers, which their lawyers termed as “a sham” claiming witnesses were coerced to testify against them.
They, however, escaped detention after securing a bail order.
The CPP also dismissed the earlier military version about the deaths where it claimed the communists died during a firefight mid-sea leading to an explosion of their motorboat.
“The claimed mid-sea firefight and explosion were all a drama hatched by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and its US military advisers, to hide all evidence of the ignominy of their fascist crime,” it said.
The party said the information gathered by its Central Committee showed the captives suffered “severe beatings” and their lifeless bodies were supposedly dumped on a motorboat before being denoted with explosives.
The faces of Tiamzons were “shattered apparently by hard objects” while their comrades’ bodies showed clear gunshot wounds, it added.
The CPP said it holds Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bacarro, then chief-of-staff of the Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Edgardo de Leon… as well as the US military advisers behind the Task Force Trident, accountable for the torture and murder, and demands justice.
A former communist rebel in Sorsogon City claimed torture and murder are common forms of the brutality of the military soldiers.
He alleged the soldiers electrocuted him and beat him with bamboo when he was captured in 1998.
“They wouldn’t stop until I told them about the whereabouts of NPA officials,” a former rebel, now a postmaster, told UCA News on condition of anonymity.
A former female rebel claimed she was tortured and gang-raped in military custody and soldiers poured candle wax on her skin to make her reveal about communist hideouts.
Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, chairman of the Philippine bishops’ Commission on Social Action, Justice, and Peace, called for a fair investigation into the allegations.
“We will guard to ensure an honest and fair investigation if indeed, the military were responsible for the torture and killing of Benita and Wilma Tiamzon and the other eight. Witnesses should take courage to tell the truth and we are ready to support truth tellers,” Bagaforo told UCA News.
He pointed out that there were several complaints of torture against the military in the past, but those were dismissed in courts due to a lack of witnesses.
“Our response to the situation is always justice and fair trial. It cannot be an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” the prelate added.
Bishop Socrates Missonia, head of the bishops’ Commission on Mission, said the church is ready to help in finding the truth.
“We have some volunteer lawyers who are ready to help. Also, we have the media to keep track of what’s happening. The Church is always on the side of truth,” Missonia told UCA News.
The AFP did not respond when UCA News contacted for a response to the allegations.
However, a military spokesperson dismissed the allegations on April 21.
"Their allegations of capture and torture are part of their propaganda and an attempt to deceive the Filipino people. 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," said military spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar, the Philippine Star reported.
