Help in Palparan arrest, lawmakers urged

MANILA, Philippines - A partylist congressman has called on his fellow lawmakers to help to locate and arrest fugitive retired Army general Jovito Palparan, the principal accused in the disappearance of two University of the Philippines students in 2006.

In House Resolution 631, Kabataan partylist Rep.Terry Ridon said legislators can do their share to make accountable violators of human rights like Palparan by using their resources to track down the fugitive ex-military official.

"Given the vast and strong presence of district representatives at the local level and the national character of the party-list, the duly elected representatives of the people can utilize the resources at their disposal to support and assist state forces in finding and arresting the fugitive Palparan," Ridon said.

Judge Teodoro Gonzales of Bulacan Regional Trial Court Branch 14 issued on December 19, 2011 a warrant for the arrest of Palparan, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado Jr., Staff Sgt. Edgardo Osorio and Master Sgt. Rizal Hilario for the disappearance of UP students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan on June 26, 2006.

The cases of kidnapping and serious illegal detention against the accused are non-bailable offenses.

Prior to the issuance of the warrant of arrest, the Department of Justice recommended the indictment of Palparan for two counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the two missing UP students. 

The DOJ used as basis the testimony of farmer Raymond Manalo, who testified and positively identified several of the abductors and torturers during the habeas corpus proceedings at the Court of Appeals in 2008.

"Palparan had a direct hand in the detention of Sherlyn and Karen and that through his men, he had knowledge and control of the places where the women were held," the DOJ said.

Armed men abducted farmer Manuel Merino, Empeño and Cadapan from a house in San Miguel, Hagonoy, Bulacan.

"During that time, Palparan was the commanding General of the Army's 7th Infantry Division whose mission was to conduct sustained Internal Security Operations in Central Luzon to neutralize the New People's Army. The UP students, who were then conducting research on the plight of Bulacan farmers, were tagged by men in uniform as members of the armed communist group," Ridon said.

Anotado and Osorio had voluntarily surrendered but Palparan and Hilario remain in hiding. Manhunt operations are now being conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation in coordination with the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group against Hilario and Palparan, whose head has  a P2 million bounty.

Malacañang and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin have called on Palparan to surrender as sectoral groups, human rights advocates and UP students and alumni launched a people's manhunt against the retired major general.

Ridon sought his colleagues' support and participation in the manhunt efforts saying "bringing Palparan to justice for the Cadapan and Empeño kidnapping will be a big step toward attaining justice, not only for the two missing UP students, but also for the thousands who disappeared and who were killed through extrajudicial killings allegedly in the hands of uniformed men and other official agents of the law."

"Human rights groups have recorded more than 700 incidents of human rights violations in less than two years that Palparan was assigned to the region during Gloria Arroyo's all-out counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya," Ridon said.