THE Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) yesterday said two of its top leaders and eight members were captured, tortured and killed by soldiers before their bodies were loaded into a boat that the military blew up off Catbalogan City in Samar last August.
In a statement, CPP spokesman Marco Valbuena said CPP chairman Benito Tiamzon, 71; his wife, CPP secretary general Wilma Austria Tiamzon, 70; and their companions were nabbed by the military on August 21 in the province.
Valbuena said another communist leader — Joel Arceo, alias Divino, a sub-regional secretary in Eastern Visayas — was among the companions arrested and killed with the Tiamzon couple.
The seven others, he said, were Ka Yen, Ka Jaja, Ka Matt, Ka Ash, Ka Delfin, Ka Lupe, and Ka Butig, who are said to be members of a guerrilla force of the CPP’s central headquarters.
Citing a report from the CPP political bureau, Valbuena said the Tiamzons and their companions were on two vans when they were accosted by the military on the national highway in Catbalogan City on August 21.
“They were flagged down between 12 noon and 1 in the afternoon, after which all communications with the group were lost. They were unarmed,” Valbuena 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,” said Valbuena.
Then 8th Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Edgardo De Leon has said they believed the 10 died after their boat exploded during a firefight off Catbalogan City on the early morning of August 22.
De Leon said the Tiamzon couple was among those onboard the boat but could not immediately confirm the information.
De Leon said a military informant reported the plan of the 10 to leave the mainland city on board a boat, for Buri Island, also in Catbalogan City, due to relentless military operations against the insurgents.
Special Forces soldiers equipped with night vision goggles, onboard boats, located the rebels off Catbalogan City, De Leon said, adding the soldiers asked the occupants to stop.
He said the insurgents did not heed the call and instead opened fire.
De Leon said soldiers retaliated and, during the exchange of fire, the boat of the insurgents exploded. He said the boat was loaded with explosives, adding soldiers may have hit the explosives during the clash, causing the explosion.
The military could not immediately confirm if those onboard indeed died until authorities recovered several bodies in the area. But the military could not establish the identities of the fatalities without DNA testing.
A military official said the military reached out to relatives of the Tiamzon couple for DNA cross match analysis but they refused to cooperate.
Valbuena’s statement effectively confirmed that the Tiamzon couple was among those slain.
Valbuena said CPP investigation disputed the military story on the circumstances leading to the death of the couple and their companions, who he called “Calbayog 10.”
“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,” said Valbuena.
“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,” he added.
He said the “same cruel and cowardly methods” were used by the military in the murder of other rebel leaders, including Jorge Madlos, alias Ka Oris, commander of the New People’s Army’s National Operations Command, who the military said died in a firefight in Impasugong town in Bukidnon in October 2021.
“The Party demands justice for the August 21 massacre of the Tiamzons, et al. Their capture, torture and killing were directed by the top officers of the AFP,” said Valbuena.
