To give the firmest tribute to party leaders Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, the National Operational Command of the New People’s Army and the CPP Central Committee directed all NPA units to stand in formation on the break of dawn of April 24 and silently execute a 21-gun salute, on the occassion of the 50th anniversary of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

The tribute of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee to comrades Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon (Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao), released in a special issue of Ang Bayan on April 20, will be read and discussed in all gatherings.

The Communist Party Party’s Political Bureau disclosed last April 20 the brutal killing of comrades Benito and Wilma by the US-supported Armed Forces of the Philippines. Ka Benito has long served as chairman of the Central Committee’s Executive Committee, while Ka Wilma was the party’s secretary general.

The couple, along with eight others, were mercilessly and cowardly killed by mercenary troops under the Joint Task Force Storm and Task Force Trident on August 21, 2022. They were arrested in Samar while traveling on two vans between 12 noon and 1pm.

They were brutally tortured before murdered. The next day, their lifeless bodies were dumped on a motorboat and towed midsea between Catbalogan City and Tarangnan Island. The boat was then made to explode to create the appearance of a sea armed encounter and cover up the heinous crime.