MANILA, Philippines - Rebel sources on Saturday evening
confirmed the arrest of the Communist Party of the Philippines’ (CPP)
highest ranking official Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma Austria in
Cebu, an island province in central Philippines.
In a statement, the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the umbrella organ of the
local communist movement, confirmed the news.
The couple were believed to
be holding sensitive positions in the local insurgent movement with
Tiamzon being the current chair of the CPP and Austria, the person in
charge of the organisation’s finances.
The CPP provides ideological direction and organisational support to the 45-year-old movement.Armed Forces Chief Emmanuel Bautista (photo) in a press briefing, announced that Tiamson and his wife, Wilma Austria, were arrested by joint units of the national police and the military on the basis of an arrest warrant issued against them for committing “crimes against humanity” and the murder and attempted killing of several others in Samar.
At the same time, he called on all members of the Communist Party of
the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) to “lay down their
arms and abandon the armed struggle.”
“In many areas of the country the insurgents have lost their
ideological moorings and have degenerated into bandit groups primarily
focused on extortion activities only,” he said.
The group commanded an estimated 25,000 armed regulars deployed in
various parts of the country during the mid-1980s, but now the
membership of the CPP-NPA, according military appraisals, has dwindled
to around 4,000 people.
Source: AFP, Agencies
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