Palparan stopped at Clark airport

Retired General and former Congressman Jovito Palparan Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

CLARK FREEPORT—Retired Major General Jovito Palparan Jr. was barred from boarding a plane bound for Singapore on Monday by immigration personnel who said he was on the bureau’s watch list.

Reynaldo Catacutan, Clark International Airport Corp. vice president for airport operations, said Palparan was about to check in at 7:30 a.m. for Seair flight DG7792 at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) here.

Lawyer Carlos Capulong, BI chief at Clark, said Palparan had been placed on the bureau’s watch list on orders of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

Capulong said Palparan did not insist on boarding the plane or create a scene when Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel confronted him.

The DOJ had recommended the filing of kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges against Palparan and three other military officers in connection with the disappearance of UP student-activists Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in 2006.

Palparan, however, said the DOJ’s act of placing him on the watch list was illegal.

“There is no new case [against me] in the first place. So why was I placed on the watch list? There was a 60-day watch list order in a case with the [DOJ] but that had lapsed,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday.

The case at the DOJ involved the torture, rape and abduction of Cadapan and Empeño.

Palparan said he was bound for Singapore where he was to stay for five days until Christmas to see relatives and meet with a business partner.

“Nagtataka ako (I am wondering), there really is no case. I was positive the DOJ would side with us. So this watch list is fabricated… the DOJ is [unreliable],” he said.

“[The DOJ] is [being] intimidated and influenced,” he added, without elaborating.

“Since there is no basis for stopping my travel, my right to travel has been violated,” he said.

With the incident, Palparan said he did not expect to get fair treatment from the government.

Immigration personnel at Clark treated him well, he said. “But yung instruction, hindi tama (was not correct) because there is no case talaga (really),” he repeated.

He said he was not shown a copy of the watch list but an immigration agent told him he was also on a “look-out list.”

“Bagong gimik na naman yan (That’s a new gimmick),” he said.

Palparan, who was alone, then left the DMIA and returned to Metro Manila.

Two days earlier, Palparan had vowed to face the criminal charges against him.

“I guess we really cannot trust liars and deceitful persons,” De Lima said in a hastily called press briefing Monday at the DOJ.

She noted that Palparan had said he would not leave the country but would face his trial head-on.

“He said the other day he was not going to leave and that he would face his case squarely. So what’s this? It was surreptitious the fact that his flight was via DMIA,” she said.

‘Attempt to flee justice’

Edre Olalia, Cadapan and Empeño’s lawyer, assailed Palparan’s “manifest attempt to flee justice,” describing the retired general “as remorseless as he is cunning and arrogant.”

“Flight is an indication of guilt. The poster boy of heinous rights violations was obviously trying to pull a fast one again,” Olalia said in a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

De Lima said that while a 60-day watch list order against Palparan had expired, he should have secured a lift order from the DOJ before attempting to leave for abroad.

“Because there was no lifting of the WLO, the BI offloaded him. But they could not detain him because there is no arrest warrant for him,” she said.

De Lima said the DOJ on Monday petitioned the Bulacan Regional Trial Court to immediately issue an arrest warrant and hold-departure order (HDO) against Palparan. Bulacan was the last place where Cadapan and Empeño were seen.

“We are hoping that the judge to whom the case will be raffled would issue a warrant and HDO at once. He is definitely a flight risk,” she said.

Late Monday, it was learned the case had been raffled off to  Judge Teodora Gonzales.

Palace reaction

Malacañang was glad the immigration bureau was able to stop Palparan from leaving the country.

“This is one situation where we welcome the decision to offload General Palparan,’’ presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda told reporters on learning the retired officer had been barred from leaving for Singapore.

“As you see, over the weekend he promised that he was not going to leave the country. Apparently, he lied and he tried to flee,’’ Lacierda said.

He said it was his “understanding’’ that the watch list order against Palparan had not yet been removed from the computers of immigration officials.

Lacierda underscored the importance of a watch list order, saying that yesterday’s incident involving Palparan “goes to show that there are certainly some people who would take advantage of the absence of a watch list order.’’

Charged with Palparan, then commanding general of the 7th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command, were Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado Jr., M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario and S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio. With reports from Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon; Marlon Ramos and Christine O. Avendaño

Originally posted: 4:37 pm | Monday, December 19th, 2011