MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 26, 2012) – A Philippine human rights group Karapatan on Monday blamed President Benigno Aquino for the government’s failure to put a stop to the spate of killings and enforced disappearance in the country.
It also assailed the government’s failure to arrest a former military commander Jovito Palparan and his cohorts who are accused for the disappearance of political activists and University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, among others.
Palparan and others are still at large.
Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, said it would almost be a year since the warrant of arrest was issued against Palparan, but the Aquino government has not shown any decisive action to bring the former army general in court.
“The hearings are proceeding with the principal accused in the kidnapping of the two UP students “nowhere in sight. The Aquino government has left the search for Palparan in the hands of bounty hunters by increasing the reward for Palparan’s capture.”
“The reward is not an expression of the Aquino government’s concern on the continued disappearance of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño but an act of washing its hands from any accountability to this case. Palparan and Ampatuan symbolize impunity in this country, and look at how the cases against them are going,” Palabay said in a statement to the Mindanao Examiner.
Karapatan added that the other high-profile cases in the country such as the killing of Italian missionary Fr. Fausto Pops Tentorio and tribal leaders Jimmy Liguyon and Genesis Ambason, and the massacre of the Capion family in Mindanao are proof that the government perpetuates impunity through its own doing.
“The problem lies with the President who is no different from his predecessor. Impunity continues under the Aquino government, however it cooks up pretensions,” she said.
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