MANILA – Filipino human rights groups and various civic groups have expressed disgust over the decision of a court in Bulacan province to transfer former army major general Jovito Palparan – accused of abducting two student-activists in 2006 – from the provincial jail to the custody of the Philippine Army.
Malolos Regional Trial Court Judge Teodora Gonzales ordered the transfer of Palparan due to alleged threats to his life at the provincial jail. The Philippine Army said there will be no special treatment for Palparan, who is staying in a tightly-guarded compound.
Human rights group Karapatan said the decision of the Malolos Court to transfer Palparan to the custody of the Philippine Army “bode evil to the hundreds of victims of the retired general and his ilk in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”
“The AFP moved heaven and earth to secure and bring back home their impunity icon Palparan. Although not surprising as it is packaged with Palparan’s supposed arrest, the transfer is nonetheless ominous for the case’s trial, eventual prosecution, and jailing of Palparan,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.
“Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Chief of Staff Gen. Gregorio Catapang and former Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Eduardo Año and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin have been building up towards this transfer, using the worn-out alibi, if not imagined, threat to the safety and security of Palparan,” she added.
Palabay said the Aquino regime never thought of the safety and security of its citizens not only in terms of the pervading criminality but also in terms of the continuing rights violations.
“Yet, the Butcher Palparan, with hundreds of victims of human rights violations, gets top priority for protection, not unlike the treatment the plunderers get in this rotten regime. The Aquino regime and the AFP will never ever allow the likes of Palparan be jailed because the arrest and jailing of Palparan is an indictment of the whole AFP, which abounds with Palparan clones,” she said.
Vencer Crisostomo, of the youth group Anakbayan, said Palparan’s transfer to military custody is “Daang Matuwid-style VIP treatment for human rights violators.”
“This homecoming is a grave insult to the families of the victims of extrajudicial killings, human rights abuse, torture and disappearances. This shows that the arrest of Palparan was only a show staged to salvage Aquino’s popularity. The script: he was to be arrested only to be taken home again under the special care of his fascist barkada,” he said, accusing Aquino of coddling Palparan.
Lorena Santos, Secretary-General of Families of Desaparecidos for Justice, said the last ray of hope for justice has just been doused. She said Palparan is essentially freed, and Malacanang welcomes it.
Palparan was arrested in August this year in Santa Mesa in Manila after government agents raided his hideout. His capture came three years after a court ordered his arrest in connection to the disappearance of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, both students of the University of the Philippines. Both women are feared dead, but their families believed they are still alive.
Palparan denied all accusations against him. He said the two women were ‘hard-core’ members of the communist rebel group New People’s Army and that neither he nor his soldiers were involved in the disappearance of Cadapan and Empeño.
A farmer, Manuel Merino, who was abducted along with the two women, was tortured and killed by soldiers and his body burned before being buried at an army detachment in Limay, Bataan province. Raymond Manalo, who escaped from a military abduction in 2008, said he saw soldiers, who were members of 24th Infantry Battalion burn Merino’s dead body and buried the corpse in the village called Bliss. Merino was killed June 10, 2007.
Manalo and his brother, Reynaldo, were allegedly seized by members of the 56th Infantry Battalion on February 14, 2006. They stayed in this Bataan detachment along with Merino, Cadapan, and Empeño from November 2006 to June 2007.
Aside from Palparan, also included in the criminal charges were Colonel Felipe Anotado, Staff Sergeant Edgar Osorio and Master Sergeant Rizal Hilario.
Besides the Cadapan, and Empeño case, Palparan is also being linked to the killings of Southern Tagalog human rights defenders Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy in April 2003. Palparan is also implicated in many cases of extrajudicial killings in Eastern Visayas, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog where he was assigned during the administration of President Gloria Arroyo, according to the Kapayapaan, a broad network of peace advocates.
“Mabuti ka pa nga, General Palparan andito ka. Nadadalaw ka ng anak at asawa mo. Ang anak ko asan ngayon? (You’re in a better position, Gen. Palparan. You’re in jail. Your children and your wife can visit you. How about my daughter, where is she now?)” Empeño’s grieving mother Connie said.
Philippine authorities also vowed to investigate the people who provided refuge to Palparan, but so far nothing has been reported about it. (Mindanao Examiner)
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