PHILIPPINE MEMBER OF COMUNIST PARTY ADVISE TO LAY DOWN ARMS

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