Love of pets gave Tiamzons away

The pets of Communist Party of the Philippines chairman Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma were presented to the media on Thursday at the Central Command in Cebu. The pets were with the couple during their arrest on March 22.

CEBU CITY, Philippines—The military has adopted two dogs and a cat belonging to captured communist leaders Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, saying they can be turned into “peaceful pets.”

“Since they are now in our custody, there is nothing wrong if we take care of them. Maybe they will become peaceful pets, they are now also peaceful and development-ready,” said Maj. Gen. John Bonafos, chief of the Armed Forces Central Command (Centcom).

The pets were with the Tiamzons and five other people in a Toyota Innova and Hyundai Starex when they were arrested at a checkpoint in Barangay (village) Zaragosa, Aloguinsan town, on Saturday.

Bonafos denied the claim of the Tiamzons’ lawyers that only the pets were recovered from the vehicles.

He said firearms, ammunition, a laptop, 19 USBs and cellular phones were also found.

All of the evidence collected are with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7)—except the two dogs and one cat which remained with Centcom.

The dogs are Shih-Tzus. One is all black while the other is white with black patterns. The cat, a Persian, is mostly black with little white spots on the face.

The pets were presented at a news conference at the Centcom office in Camp Lapu-Lapu, Barangay Lahug, here on Thursday.

Not arrested

Asked if the pets were under arrest, Bonafos replied laughing, “Of course not.”

“We are taking care of them. If we neglect them, we might be charged with violating animal rights,” he said in Filipino.

He said the pets could be returned to the Tiamzons, “but as of now we have adopted them.”

However, the cost of feeding the pets was rather high, more than the P500 combat pay of a soldier and, presumably, the kind of food eaten by the communist rebels in the mountains, Bonafos said.

The Tiamzon’s pets are fed the “Royal Canine” brand of pet food, which costs P2,000 per pack. Each pet consumes one pack per month, said Bonafos.

If the Tiamzons spent P2,000 per month per pet, it means the food consumption of the three pets reached P14,000 per month.

Bonafos said the military’s K-9 unit is taking care of them and continues to feed them with the same expensive dog food brand. The budget is taken from the allocation of the K-9 unit, he said.

Bonafos said the Tiamzons’ well-known love for pets was one of the clues that led intelligence agents to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army chair and his wife.

He said the agents received tips about a couple in Barangay Sangat with so many pets who did not mingle with their neighbors.

“The information didn’t come from the military and the Philippine National Police but from the people,” he said.

Probable cause

Bonafos said the Tiamzons had 10 pets—an additional four dogs and three cats. The other pets were in the couple’s safe house in Barangay Sangat, San Fernando, in southern Cebu, which was raided by the CIDG-7 on Tuesday. The raiders did not take the pets with them.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday said it had found probable cause to indict the Tiamzon couple, Joel Enano Escandor, Arlene Panea, Rex Villaflor, Nona “Lorraine” Castillo and Jeosi Nepa on charges of illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives.

The DOJ is expected to file the information against the seven in a Cebu court Friday.—With reports from Marlon Ramos and Christine O. Avendaño