CPDF (NDFP) Tribute To Slain CPP Leaders Benito Tiamzon And Wilma Austria
Cordillera People’s Democratic Front | National Democratic Front Of The Philippines
April 24, 2023
This day marks the anniversary of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. Despite the deep sense of loss, the Cordillera People’s Democratic Front observes today as one made more special by the fiery pledge of the national democratic forces to take up the responsibilities left by comrades Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria. The CPDF joins the revolutionary forces of the Philippines in grieving their deaths and that of eight other comrades. For Ka Benito and Ka Wilma, the people’s movement commits to ensure that the present Marcos administration takes accountability for his latest crimes of against the people’s movement.
The NDFP was founded 50 years ago no more than a year after the senior Marcos declared Martial Law. It was thus immediately tempered in the life-and-death struggle against tyranny and fascism, the ruling class’ knee-jerk response to the people’s justified and necessary uprising against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. Marcos’ greed itself caused the Filipino people to mass up in the streets and form themselves as militant organizations.
Both Benito and Wilma were among the products of that revolutionary period, with their incubation as Communist cadres spanning from the late 60s to early 70s. They worked among the sector of the youth and graduated to working with the workers and then the peasant class. On every occasion, the couple proved themselves exemplary leaders of and for the people by effectively utilizing revolutionary tools at their disposal. In Eastern Samar during the late 70s, they used social investigation and class analysis to gain a deep understanding of the anti-feudal struggle of the peasants. In Central Luzon, they merged armed struggle to mass campaign focusing on the basic alliance of peasant and working classes to contribute to the eventual downfall of the dictator Marcos.
The lives, struggles and methods of work and leadership of comrades Benito and Wilma embody the principles of the NDFP. The coalition serves as framework for the establishment and development of its allied organizations according to the revolutionary class line. Benito and Wilma gave life to these principles by helping strengthen the leadership of the working class and by building the basic alliance between farmers and laborers. Their revolutionary work is a testament to the correctness of the principles guiding the national democratic revolution.
The leadership of the Armed Forces of the Philippines is directly responsible for the deaths of the comrades. The CPDF condemns in the strongest possible sense the torture and murder they suffered in the hands of Bongbong Marcos as the AFP commander-in-chief, then chief-of-staff Lt.Gen. Bartolome Bacarro, Joint Task Force Storm’s Gen. Edgardo De Leon and Intelligence Service’ Brig.Gen. Marceliano Teofilo. Enabled by the Joint Special Operations Task Force Trident, a unit trained and provisioned by the US Army, these murderers will forever have on their hands the blood of beloved revolutionary martyrs. The CPDF cannot stress enough the gravity of their crimes against the people and the revolutionary movement. The North will remember and the North will be there on the day of reckoning.
Pick Up The Torch And Continue The Struggle Of The Slain Martyrs With Intensified Fervor!
Hold The Marcos II Regime Guilty For Its Crimes Of Abduction, Torture And Summary Execution!
Strengthen The National Democratic Movement And Join The People’s Democratic Revolution!
Source : https://philippinerevolution.nu/statements/ka-benito-wilma-embodied-national-democratic-principles/