Palparan asks CA to quash kidnap, illegal detention case
Retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. RAFFY LERMA/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
CITY OF MALOLOS, Philippines — The lawyers of retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. asked the Court of Appeals, on Monday, to quash the kidnapping and serious illegal detention case filed against him for the 2006 abduction of two University of the Philippines students in Bulacan province.
A security unit composed of soldiers took Palparan to the Bulacan Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 14 here on Monday for his trial for the disappearance of UP students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan.
Palparan, called the “butcher” of political activists, is detained at the Philippine Army Custodial Center (PACC) in Metro Manila, after the court, on Sept. 15, allowed him to be transferred out of the Bulacan Provincial Jail due to concerns about his security.
Judge Teodora Gonzales of the RTC Branch 14 here said she would continue hearing Palparan’s case. “Unless there is a temporary restraining order [from the CA] to suspend the proceedings, the court will continue with this case,” she said.
Lawyer Diosab Formilleza, Palparan’s counsel, said they asked the CA to review Gonzales’ earlier denial of his client’s motion to quash the charges, arguing that the charges against him, like serious illegal detention, were applicable to civilians and not active military personnel.
Formilleza said Palparan, the former commander of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division based in Nueva Ecija province, was charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the abduction and disappearance of the UP students before he retired from military service.
But the lawyers representing the families of Cadapan and Empeño said the CA already denied a similar motion filed in 2011 by Palparan’s lawyers.
Lawyer Edre Olalia, also the secretary general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), said: “Palparan’s latest moves to recycle petitions to stop the proceedings have already been denied by the RTC and dismissed by the CA years ago … They are using the law and legal procedures and all its effects to frustrate justice.”
“This [new CA petition is] part of the twist and turns of the government officials who are coddling Palparan … We want [to hear President Aquino’s] position on Palparan,” he said.
Olalia also criticized Palparan’s detention in the PACC.
“Now, coming from the Army detention [facility] in Fort Bonifacio, they are 42 kilometers away from this court with the government’s money being spent on travel and all the bodyguards escorting him,” Olalia said.
Palparan’s detention in Fort Bonifacio should no longer be an issue, said lawyer Narzal Mallares, another Palparan counsel.
The court has set a pretrial conference on Oct. 20.
After Gonzales ended the hearing, Palparan’s security detail failed to bring him out of the courtroom immediately because of a rally staged outside the RTC building.
Erlinda Cadapan, mother of one of the missing UP students, assailed the policemen and soldiers guarding Palparan.
“Why are you securing and protecting this man? Shouldn’t you be protecting people who lost loved ones, and people like us who are seeking justice?” she yelled through a megaphone.
The policemen had to open a path through the crowd using their shields to allow Palparan to get into a waiting van.
As the van drove off, the protesters threw baby bottles, some marked with the phrase: “Palparan parusahan, huwag i-baby (Punish Palparan, don’t treat him like a baby).”
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