THE military’s claim that Benito and Wilma Tiamzon were killed in an encounter at sea, followed by a boat explosion, seemed less credible than the claims made by the Communist Party of the Philippines. Benito was the CCP chairman while his wife, Wilma, was secretary-general at that time.
The CPP said the Tiamzons were with eight others in two vans on the way to Catbalogan City in Northern Samar on August 21 last year when they were flagged down. After that, all communications with any of them stopped.
The CPP claims the Tiamzons and the rest were tortured and killed and their bodies dumped in a motorboat filled with explosives before it was tugged midway to a nearby island and detonated. Apparently, there were witnesses who could attest to the CCP’s claims.
Why the military did not present the bodies if they were indeed “killed” in a firefight is hard to explain. An alleged encounter at sea that led to a massive explosion, burning and killing all the victims, was quite implausible unless Tiamzon’s group had stored a ton of explosives in the boat.
‘Shouldn’t the Senate conduct an intensive probe on this case?’
Many are saying it was never the intention of the Armed Forces to draw sympathetic public attention to the corpses of the Tiamzons if public viewing was allowed by the government. It would also provoke a possible intense and widespread backlash from the NPAs and their sympathizers.
Defense Secretary Eduardo Ano has defended the military and strongly denounced the CPP for the “fabricated propaganda that the Tiamzons were kidnapped, severely beaten and killed.”
Shouldn’t the Senate conduct an intensive probe on this case?
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A good friend and one of sport’s prized assets, Ed Picson, has passed away. He would have been 70 in July. Ed started his sportscasting career covering jai-alai games live on radio in the early 1980s.
Quite articulate and skillful, he would turn out to be outstanding in the job. Later, Ed would join the PBA’s famed and multi-awarded sportscasting team that included Quinito Henson, Ronnie Nathanielsz, Sev Sarmenta and the legendary Joe Cantada.
Ed and I were together in the jazz-pioneering radio station, DWWK-FM, in the late 1970s until the 80s, along with Jing Magsaysay, Wayne Enage (better known as Brother Wayne) Ronnie Quintos, Ronnie Malig and Pinky Villarama-Evagelista. Jing would become a regular news anchor of ABS-CBN and vice-president for Operations of ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC).
We had unforgettable times interviewing on-air the prominent and popular jazz artists then, among them Bob James, Angela Bofill, Dianne Reeves, Tom Scott, George Benson, David Benoit and Quincy Jones. They came to Manila to do jampacked concerts at the PICC or at the Araneta Coliseum. Their albums became best-sellers in Metro Manila largely due to their daily exposures on DWWK-FM.
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The following is certainly spiritually enlightening to those with serious ailments which have weakened their faith and trust in our loving and healing God. From A.A. Allen, one of the most important evangelists to emerge during the healing revival in the 1950s: “Before Jesus went to heaven, He left with His followers this mighty promise: ‘Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father’ (John 14:12).
Many preachers who deny the miracle-working power of Jesus Christ in His church today admit that Christ healed the sick, but declare that the day of miracles is past. They say that the sick cannot be healed by the power of God today because Jesus is gone. But He plainly stated that His going did not mean the end of miracles, but rather that miracles would increase.
“His last commission to those He left behind to carry on His work was, ‘Go ye into the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils… they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover (Mark 16: 15-18).”
