Mothers of missing women tell Palparan: You’re a coward
MANILA, Philippines—As Jovito Palparan defied the authorities, the mothers of missing students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño said Wednesday he should be man enough to face charges in court and urged the public to provide tips on his whereabouts.
“He should be man enough to face up to his sins,” Erlinda Cadapan said in a briefing at the Karapatan office.
Said Concepcion Empeño: “If you’re listening now, Jovito Palparan, you’re a coward. Mr. Empeño said `You don’t have any balls.’ We will search you out. Surface our daughters and other victims of enforced disappearance. You’ll rot in jail with GMA and Abalos.’’
She was referring to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos, who are now detained on charges of electoral sabotage. While President, Arroyo once praised Palparan very highly in a state of the nation address as an effective officer against communist rebels despite the widespread accusations against him.
With a local court issuing a warrant for his arrest, Concepcion Empeño and Erlinda Cadapan believe that the “day of reckoning” is fast approaching for Palparan, who remains at large and tried to fly out of the country but was barred by immigration agents.
“The time has come for him to account for his crimes,” Concepcion Empeño said.
The two mothers issued a joint statement calling on the public to “join us in this people’s manhunt to ensure that he and his cohorts be immediately arrested, put to jail and prosecuted for the grave human rights violations they committed.”
“He should be jailed in the company of ordinary detainees before Christmas without any special treatment. He should be made to account for his actions,” Empeño said in the interview.
Editha Burgos, mother of missing agriculturist Jonas Burgos, agreed with the call.
“Let’s help out. We have to do what is right. If we don’t act, then we’re siding with evil. We can’t do this alone. You know his face; it’s splashed on the papers. He may be smoking a cigarette by your side. He could be leaning out his window. He could be lolling in his garden, playing with his dog,” she said at the same news conference.
Echoing the two other mothers, Burgos appealed to the custodians of the UP students “to do what is right.’’
“Do what your conscience dictates and what God wants. Rest assured, we’ll pray for you to have the strength to do this,’’ she said.
The Department of Justice’s indictment of Palparan and active military officers, and the court’s issuance of warrants for their arrest have spurred relatives of the disappeared to press on with their search for justice.
“It has given us joy that something could happen,” Burgos, widow of press freedom icon Jose Burgos, said in an interview. “We’re realistic to know that it won’t happen overnight. This initiative will spur us to go on.”
She said the day of reckoning was “coming very, very soon” for the perpetrators of disappearances and abductions.
“This should open the eyes of those holding Sherlyn and Karen and all the disappeared to come out and come clean, to lessen their culpability,” she said. “I’m sure Palparan will bring down many people.”
