Tiamzons under tight watch – Lorenzana

From the Manila Times (Jan 10): Tiamzons under tight watch – Lorenzana

The government knows the whereabouts of Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, top leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-New People’s Army (NPA), and security officials are only waiting for President Rodrigo Duterte to issue the order for their arrest, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Tuesday.

Lorenzana refused to disclose the location of the couple.

“We are monitoring them. We will wait for the order of the President. If he orders their arrest, then we are going to arrest them,” Lorenzana said in a news conference after the joint defense and military New Year’s Call at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

The Tiamzons, who are facing criminal charges on court, were released in 2016 to participate in the peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), the political arm of the CPP.

The president called off peace talks last year after the CPP ordered communist guerillas to intensify their attacks on government troops.

Lorenzana said the peace negotiations may resume “if the environment is good and there is trust from both sides.”

“But as of now, I think you also have been hearing the President, he is not very keen on starting the talks now,” he added.

Lorenzana said the military is exerting efforts to encourage communist rebels to return to the fold of the law.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Rey Leonardo Guerrero last week vowed to reduce the number of communist fighters nationwide by half this year.

He estimated that there were 3,700 NPA members, mostly in eastern Mindanao.

“We intend to reduce that number by half for 2018,” the military chief told reporters in an interview.

Guerrero claimed that the military has been successful in containing insurgency in the past two years.

“We were able to significantly reduce their strength, their firearms and the number of affected barangay (villages) by the NPA,” he said.

Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., commander of the Western Mindanao Command (WestMinCom), downplayed the number of communist rebels in his area of responsibility.

“The number of NPA in my area is somehow small and we believe that we will be able to fight them and of course, we were able to contain them,” Galvez said.

Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Salamat, commander of the Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), meanwhile said the military in Luzon will continue its “parallel efforts” in fighting communist insurgency.

He confirmed reports that the NPA has been recruiting in Cagayan, Cordillera and Abra.

“We have been doing several deployment [of troops]. We will address this problem within the minimal forces that we have [in Nolcom],” he said.

http://www.manilatimes.net/tiamzons-tight-watch-lorenzana/373280/