Tiamzons deny owning 7 pets, spending P14K monthly for dogs and cats

From InterAksyon (Apr 12): Tiamzons deny owning 7 pets, spending P14K monthly for dogs and cats

Not P14,000, just P700 monthly for pets that they don't even own.

Top Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon have denied the military's claim that they were spending P14,000 monthly for the food of seven dogs and cats.

Also, the Tiamzons dismissed reports from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that the pets belonged to them.

"The military is used to bloat budgets.  It made it appear that the budget for the pet dogs and cats of the Villaflor couple is P14,000 a month when this only runs to P700 a month financed through their own income," said the Tiamzons in a recent statement released through human rights group Karapatan.

Three of the seven pets - two dogs and a cat, which the military later named Ben, Wilma, and Joma - were with the Tiamzon couple when they were arrested in Cebu on March 22, AFP Central Command spokesperson Lt. Jim Aris Alagao was quoted in news reports as saying.

News reports also quoted the military as saying that the Tiamzons could have spent P14,000 monthly or P2,000 a month for the food of each of their pet dogs and cats, which is four times more than the monthly combat pay received by soldiers.

Also, the Tiamzons assailed the government for the "trumped up case of multiple murder filed against us."

They said the case "was based on inconsistent testimony or pattern of incredible accusations hurled against the central leadership of the Party, on human remains that transferred burial grounds depending on where it would be needed, and where no indisputable examination leading to the identification of alleged victims of murder had been done."

"We cannot help but think that the Supreme Court, Executive and military have conspired to enable them to pursue this fabricated multiple murder case despite its serious defects according to the rules of their own justice system," the couple said.

"Could there be any protection for individuals against trumped up cases when those in power connive?" they said.

"The conspiracy is more glaring than sunlight—when puppies turned out into guns and skeletons kept transferring burial grounds," the couple added.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/84650/tiamzons-deny-owning-7-pets-spending-p14k-monthly-for-dogs-and-cats