Netizens urged to help in manhunt

The hunt for the “Butcher” goes virtual.

The End Impunity Alliance, a network of rights abuse victims and rights defenders, is taking the hunt for Jovito Palparan Jr. to the Internet, exhorting Facebook users to put up the “Wanted: Palparan” poster released by rights groups Karapatan, Desaparecidos and Hustisya.

“All netizens are enjoined to post this poster on their profiles to make known to Internet users the face and name of this notorious human rights violator and seek information on his whereabouts to cause his immediate arrest,” Cristina Palabay, an alliance convener, said on Friday.

Palabay also suggested that Facebook users post this note: “Support the call of the mothers of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño for a PEOPLE’S MANHUNT for Palparan! JAIL PALPARAN! JUSTICE FOR ALL VICTIMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS! Use this profile picture to spread the word about the need to arrest one of the most notorious human rights violators.”

The kidnapping and serious illegal detention case against Palparan and three others stemmed from the 2006 abduction of University of the Philippines students Cadapan and Empeño, whose mothers have called on the public to tip off authorities on the fugitive’s whereabouts.

Palabay reiterated the mothers’ call for help in the hunt for the retired major general.

“Three days after the issuance of the warrants of arrest against Palparan et al., he has evaded accountability by trying to leave the country and by being a fugitive,” Palabay said.

“We call on the public to help the victims’ mothers by giving information, which is not only an exercise of vigilance and compassion, but also an act, however small, of making perpetrators pay for their high crimes against the victims and the Filipino people,” she added.

“Ending impunity in the country, when state institutions have been remiss in pursuing justice and accountability, rests on the people’s advocacy and struggle for genuine democracy and freedom.”