Leftist rebel group demands release of top leaders

MANILA, Philippine (Xinhua) - The leftist National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) condemned today in the strongest terms the arrest of two leftist rebel leaders and demanded for their quick and unconditional release.

Authorities arrested on Saturday afternoon Benito Tiamzon, head of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), and his wife Wilma Austria, who is also a top-ranked central committee member and the CPP finance officer, in central province of Cebu.

NDFP peace panel chair Luis Jalandoni said that Tiamzon and Austria are NDFP consultants who "have fulfilled and are fulfilling highly significant tasks in the peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)."

He said Tiamzon and Austria are both covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) of the NDFP and the government and of the Letter of Acknowledgment signed by then GRP negotiating panel chairman Silvestre H. Bello III.

Austria is holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND978226 under her real name, while Tiamzon is the holder of NDFP Document of Identification ND 978227 under the assumed name"Crising Banaag" .

"The NDFP vigorously demands that Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria be immediately and unconditionally released," Jalandoni said.

He said that the latest flagrant violation of the JASIG by the Aquino government, in addition to so many other gross violations of the JASIG, "most seriously prejudices the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations."

Peace talks between the government and the NDFP, the political wing of the CPP-NPA, bogged down in February last year.

The leftist rebel group has been waging war against the government for over four decades.