THE National Security Council (NSC), thru National Security Adviser Eduardo M. Año, called on the remaining members of the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDFP) to now seriously consider going the path of peace after the terrorist groups finally confirmed the deaths of its two highest officials, the couple Benito and Wilma Tiamzon more than eight months ago.
“We in the NTF ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict) are extending the hand of unity and peace to the remaining members of the CPP-NPA-NDF who were duped by Joma Sison and the Tiamzons into embracing this defunct and senseless cause.
“Now is the time for them to lay down their arms and rejoin mainstream society for the peace and development of the Filipino nation,” said Año.
Año issued the statement on April 20, 2023, just hours after the CPP confirmed the Tiamzon’s death in a statement posted at its official website, ‘Philippine Revolution Web Central’ (see also related article).
During his long career as one of the country’s most respected intelligence officers in the Armed Forces, Año, who went on to become Armed Forces chief from 2016 to 2017, has earned the fear—and respect— of the country’s top terrorist leaders, both communists and Muslim extremists, as he was mainly responsible for the arrest and neutralization of their top leadership.
It was under Año’s leadership as head of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces (ISAFP) that the Tiamzons were arrested in Cebu City in 2014.
Año added that the CPP’s admission is “welcome” as most Filipinos already suspected that the Tiamzons have become casualties during a military encounter in Samar province in August 2022.
“We have long suspected that they have been killed in a clash with government forces last year. Finally, the terrorists have been forced to admit what many of us have suspected many, many months ago,” he said.
With the death of CPP founder Jose Maria Sison and now the Tiamzon couple, the Communist Terrorist Group is now headless with no clear national leadership. They have lost both their guiding light in the person of Joma and their commander in the Tiamzons and are now groping in the dark with no direction nor future in sight,” he noted. Sison,83, passed away in Utrecht, The Netherlands, last December 16, 2022.
Sison’s death and the deaths of the Tiamzons follow in the heel of the arrest in Langkawi, Malaysia of another ranking CPP official, Eric ‘Jun’ Casilao, who was deported back to the country last April 17, 2023 (see Pinoy Exposé, April 17, 2023).
Año also labeled as an “elaborate fabrication” the CPP’s accusation that the Tiamzons were “tortured” by the military after their arrest in an operation participated in by American military advisers.
“As is their practice, the terrorists’ propaganda machinery has concocted and fabricated an elaborate story which even implicates the United States in their deaths in order to squeeze whatever propaganda value they can muster from their deaths.
“They are now trapped in their own web of lies which deserves scant comment. Needless to say, there is no truth whatsoever in this clearly fabricated story and we stand by the official reports from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”
“The death of the Tiamzons and the arrest of Casilao,” Año stressed, “show that terrorists cannot find a safe haven anywhere in the world, be it in the mountains or in other countries.”
“The government is determined to capture terrorist leaders wherever they are maybe. The long arm of the law will always reach the criminal wherever he may be,” he added.