Joma Sison: Tiamzons’ Arrest Will Impede Peace Negotiations

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman and now National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace panel chief political consultant, Jose Maria “Joma” Sison on Monday said the arrest of Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP/NPA) leader Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma will only impede peace negotiations between the government and the rebels.

Report said Sison asked that the Tiamzons be released for the sake of the negotiations saying that the two are covered by the Joint Agreement Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) because they are peace consultants for the NDFP.

Malacañang last week said the Tiamzons are not protected by JASIG because Benito used an alias, while Wilma escaped from detention before the guarantees were laid out. Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda reportedly said the JASIG is no longer “operative” because the list of those supposedly covered by it has been “inaccessible due to a corrupted diskette”, Gma News online reported.

Meanwhile, NDFP peace panel chairman Luis Jalandoni said last week Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria, who were arrested in Carcar town Cebu, are consultants in the peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the NDFP. He said the arrest is the “latest flagrant violation of the JASIG by the Aquino administration”.

Jalandoni said “The NDFP vigorously demands that Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria be immediately and unconditionally released” adding that Austria is a holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND978226 as well as the Letter of Acknowledgment signed by then government peace panel Silvestre Bello III. He also said Tiamzon is the holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND 978227 under the assumed name “Crising Banaag,” as well as a Letter of Acknowledgment signed by Bello.

The Tiamzons were arrested by personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police in the boundary between Carcar and Aloguinsan town in Cebu last Saturday.

Source: GMA News Online

Image Credit: ndfp.net