FALL. Alleged CPP
chairman Benito Tiamzon and wife Wilma after their arrest. Photo by Ben Nabong
When he studied at the University of the
He wrote for the Philippine
Collegian, the official student newspaper of UP Diliman, and would hang
out with campus writers, recalled a former senior cadre of the Communist Party
of the Philippines (CPP) who knows Tiamzon from those years. Tiamzon eventually
joined a militant student movement, the Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan (SDK)
which, along with the Kabataang Makabayan (KM), would form the backbone of the
national democratic movement during the Marcos years.
Tiamzon started
party work by organizing labor unions in Metro Manila under the CPP's Metro
Manila-Rizal Regional Party Committee, according to various intelligence
reports on him. He organized Marikina 's market
vendors and shoemakers, for example, as well as workers in Caloocan
Tiamzon has come
a long way since.
On Saturday,
March 22, military and police units
captured him, his wife Wima and 5 others in Barangay Zaragosa, Aloguinsan, Cebu .
This is not his
first arrest.
Tiamzon was
arrested and detained in Fort
Bonifacio
The former CPP
cadre we interviewed said Tiamzon has one distinguishing mark: he has 6 toes in
one foot.
The military said
that at the time of his arrest on March 22, Tiamzon was the chairman of the CPP
and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), while his wife was the
secretary-general.
Party
consolidation
He's more than
that, however.
Now 63, Tiamzon
is credited for consolidating the party after it suffered its biggest split in
the early 1990s.
The split came
about after CPP chairman-in- exile Jose Maria Sison initiated a rectification
campaign that ordered cadres to return to the old principles of a protracted
people's war, discouraged "adventurism" in the ranks, and slammed
party leaders who wanted to fast-track the revolution by expanding in key
cities and provinces. Sison's stern reminders came in the form of a 1992 party
document titled, "Reaffirm Our Basic Principles and Rectify Errors."
A massive purge followed,
splitting the communist movement into two major factions: the so-called
"Reaffirmists," who heeded Sison's back-to-basics order, and the
so-called "Rejectionists," who believed that the party needed to
adapt to the changing times.
As rebel units
disintegrated and the movement's minted names left the CPP, the Ramos
administration then declared that the communist movement was in an
"irreversible decline." The government was so convinced of this that
at one point, it gave the Philippine National Police (PNP) the primary role of
fighting the insurgents so that the military could focus on external defense.
Tiamzon stood by
the party during this difficult period and pursued the rectification campaign,
intelligence officers and former CPP cadres told Rappler. "He consolidated
the party after the split. He should be credited for that," a former cadre
said.
True, the
communist underground is no longer as formidable as it had been at its peak in
the 1980s (when it had about 20,000 armed members). Robert Delfin, a veteran
intelligence agent who was behind the sensational arrests of senior rebel
leaders in the 1980s and 1990s, said in a previous interview: “Ang NPA ay
parang bolang kristal. Kapag nabasag, hindi mo na mabubuo." (The NPA
is like a crystal ball. Once it is broken, you can no longer make it whole
again). (READ: Timeline of
CPP-NPA arrests under Aquino)
But the communist
underground has managed to bounce back in some regions, taunting authorities
and regaining some political base. The military has also since taken back from
the PNP the primary role of running after the guerrillas. And despite its
measly number of about 3,000 armed members today, the communist movement
continues to be a strategic security threat as far as the military is
concerned.
Tiamzon played a
key role in that rebuilding.
He first showed
his organizational muscle when he was assigned in the Samar
provinces in the 1970s to provide "political direction" to the NPA
there, according to the former CPP cadre we interviewed.
In fact, sources
told Rappler that the Tiamzon couple became vulnerable to surveillance right
after Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) struck the Samar-Leyte area in November
2013. They were spotted in and out of the area, according to sources.
The region became
an NPA stronghold in the Marcos years due to poverty and the tactical skills of
two rebel commanders during this period: Pedro Calubid and Arturo Tabara
(Tabara was assassinated by the NPA, a casualty of the split).
It was Benito
Tiamzon who assisted Calubid and Tabara in Samar
during those years, ensuring "political development" for party organs
there, the former cadre added.
In 1976, the CPP
through Sison issued a crucial organizational document that set the orientation
for countryside work. Many believe that Tiamzon wrote the bulk of that party
document, after he studied and summed up the various organizational experiences
of guerrilla bases from Isabela to Davao Samar – and the
rebels' success there – to emphasize "painstaking organizational
work," recalled the former CPP cadre.
Another former
CPP cadre recalled: "That was his strength…he was able to explain with
clarity the various organizational challenges facing the party. In meetings, he
would summarize conflicting positions and ideas. He was good at that."
In 1985, nearly a
decade after the release of the party document that he helped author, the CPP
suffered its worst political debacle: it decided to boycott the February 1986
snap elections called by Marcos. The elections, which Marcos won officially, triggered
massive protests that led to the EDSA revolution that brought him down and
catapulted Corazon Aquino to the presidency. The CPP was left sitting on the
fence.
The CPP chairman
then, Rodolfo Salas, took the flak for that "strategic blunder," as
insiders would call it. He resigned.
Tiamzon was ripe
for the position of chairman, which he would hold in an acting capacity and in
between transitions. He was formally elected CPP chairman during a plenum
sometime between 2004 and 2008, according to intelligence reports.
45 years
Government and
military officials have been describing Tiamzon as the hardliner vis-a-vis
peace talks with the Aquino government. Alex Padilla, government's chief peace
negotiator, told Rappler last year that while Sison seemed open to resuming
peace talks with the administration, Tiamzon had imposed difficult
preconditions for the talks. (READ: Joma wants peace,
the ground doesn't)
A veteran
intelligence officer however said Tiamzon himself was subjected to disciplinary
action over reported problems caused by the underground movement's decision to
support the candidacy of businessman Manny Villar in the 2010 presidential
race. But party insiders dispute this.
Whatever it is,
the guerrilla army that Tiamzon once led is celebrating its 45th anniversary a
week from now, on March 29 – proof of its tenacity and the persistence of
conditions that had driven young men like him to rebel 4 decades ago.
http://www.rappler.com/nation/53686-benito-tiamzon-cpp-leader
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