THE Gabriela women’s party-list yesterday disputed the Armed Forces’ claim that Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) chairman Benito Tiamzon and his wife, CPP secretary general Wilma Austria Tiamzon, were terrorists, saying they were active participants in the peace talks with the government.
The CPP last week said the two CPP leaders 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, Gabriela said the Tiamzons were members of the peace panel from 2016 to 2017 “who actively participated in the peace talks between the government of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front (NDFP) before the Duterte administration decided to terminate the negotiations and ordered a bloody crackdown against the peace advocates and supporters of the peace negotiations.”
“The victims were not terrorists, contrary to the statement by the AFP. Benito and Wilma Tiamzon were members of the peace panel from 2016 to 2017,” it said. “We, in Gabriela Women’s Party, express our condolences to the families of peace consultants Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria Tiamzon and eight other revolutionaries who were allegedly tortured and murdered by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).”
According to reports, the Tiamzons travelled to Catbalogan City unarmed with their companions Ka Divino, Ka Yen, Ka Jaja, Ka Matt, Ka Ash, Ka Delfin, Ka Lupe, and Ka Butig when the state forces in Samar province captured them on August 21, 2022.
They all suffered severe beatings and brutal torture, which Gabriela said was a clear violation of the International Humanitarian Law.
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.
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 but they allegedly 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.
Gabriela, however, said such “gross violations of humanitarian laws do not facilitate the resumption of peace talks or address the armed conflict’s root causes.”
Along with fellow members of the Makabayan bloc in Congress, Gabriela, which is represented by Rep. Arlene Brosas, already filed House Resolution No. 694 last January “to probe the gross violations of International Humanitarian Law by state forces during its counter-insurgency operations.”
