Palparan co-accused invokes decades-old EO
MANILA, Philippines—Staff Sergeant Edgardo Osorio, a co-accused of retired Major General Jovito Palparan in the abduction of two University of the Philippines students in 2006, has invoked the late President Manuel L. Quezon’s executive order that would put the soldier in the custody of the Philippine Army.
Osorio has filed a comment with the Malolos regional trial court opposing the Department of Justice’s motion for reconsideration of the court’s earlier order transferring him from a provincial jail to military custody.
Through his lawyer Joey Cruz, Osorio invoked Quezon’s EO 106 authorizing the Army commanding general to take custody of Army personnel charged with a crime from trial up to conviction to oppose the DOJ’s motion for reconsideration.
“Unless repealed, it’s still effective. It’s the burden of the prosecution that it’s no longer existing and effective,” Cruz said in a phone interview, referring to the 1937 EO.
Osorio, Palparan and Colonel Felipe Anotado have been charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention at the Malolos RTC in Bulacan for their alleged involvement in the disappearance of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in June 2006.
Osorio and Anotado surrendered to Army authorities in Camp Aguinaldo on December 20, and were brought to the Bulacan provincial jail. They were transferred to the Philippine Army Custodial Management Unit in Fort Bonifacio after their lawyer argued that their life would be in danger in the company of criminals and suspected communist rebels inside the jail.
The government last week doubled to P1 million the reward for information that will lead to the capture of Palparan, whom the government tagged a fugitive.
Lawyer Edre Olalia, a member of the National Union of People’s Lawyers that serves as private prosecutors for the victims’ families, said the Quezon EO had been superseded by the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure which provide that an arrested person must be brought to the nearest police station and confined in a civilian facility.
“It’s ridiculous for them to be invoking an ancient and obscure law,” he said by phone.
Osorio also said in a counter-affidavit that he had neither served under nor received orders from the then major general, and that he was randomly picked by witnesses in a courtroom.
Olalia, however, said this was just an “alibi.”
“It’s the weakest of all defenses especially in view of a positive, credible identification by an eyewitness,” he said.
Osorio said in a counter-affidavit that he was “never” assigned to the 7th Infantry Division in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija that was then under Palparan’s command.
“I was never instructed nor under the direct command and control of Major General Jovito Palparan in any given time. Worth noting, I met Major General Jovito Palparan Jr. only when I was detailed to secure his safety at the DOJ (Department of Justice) hearing on 19 July 2011,” he said.
It was during this hearing that he was randomly identified by Alberto Ramirez and Wilfredo Ramos as one of the perpetrators in the 2006 abduction of Empeño and Cadapan in Hagonoy, Bulacan, Osorio said.
“Alberto Ramirez and Wilfredo Ramos first identified my colleague Pfc Neri as one of the perpetrators in the said case. However, when they learned and realized that Pfc. Neri was not yet enlisted at the time of the alleged incident, they now pinpointed me as the one who allegedly participated in the alleged crime,” he said.
“Noteworthy, how Alberto Ramirez and Wilfredo Ramos are on fishing expedition on their malicious imputations that I was one of the persons involved in the alleged incident,” he added. He said he had not met the pair in his entire life.
Osorio said he had not met Cadapan and Empeño and had no “direct or indirect knowledge whatsoever on their alleged disappearance.”
He said his assignments would disprove charges that he had a hand in the crime. He said he was assigned to the AFP Peacekeeping Operations School in Camp Lapu-Lapu, Cebu City from April 27, 2006 to May 5, 2006; then at the Army Personnel Management Center in Fort Bonifacio from May 5, 2006 to July 6, 2006, and then at the AFPPKOC effective July 13, 2006 for eventual deployment to Liberia as part of the United Nations peacekeeping mission.
He was deployed to Liberia from July 6, 2006 to March 1, 2007, and after that, at the General Headquarters from March 1, 2007 to February 2009.
“I categorically deny all the accusations, imputations and charges of herein complainants against me … I have no participation in the alleged rape, serious physical injuries, arbitrary detention, maltreatment of prisoners, grave threats, grave coercion and violation of RA 7438 on Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño,” he said.
