Student groups in Panay join hunt

Iloilo City—Student and human rights groups on Panay Island have joined the hunt for retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, who is wanted for the abduction of two University of the Philippines students in 2006.

Student activists have started putting up “Wanted Palparan” posters at the campuses of UP Visayas in Iloilo City and Miag-ao town calling for the ex-military official’s arrest.

“Palparan should face the legal charges filed against him in court. Our fellow activists who were abducted, murdered and tortured did not have the same privilege being afforded to him now. It is only right for Palparan to rot in jail. Justice should be served,” said League of Filipino Students Panay regional spokesperson JC Alejandro.

Last week, the government doubled to P1 million the bounty for information that will lead to the capture of Palparan.

Palparan was last seen on Dec. 19 when Bureau of Immigration personnel at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in the Clark Freeport in Pampanga stopped him from boarding a plane bound for Singapore, citing his inclusion in the DOJ’s watch list.

On Dec. 21, Judge Teodora Gonzales of the Malolos Regional Trial Court Branch 14 in Bulacan, issued arrest warrants for Palparan and three others for their alleged involvement in the abduction of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in Hagonoy in June 2006.

In Dec. 2007, farmer Raymond Manalo testified in the Court of Appeals that he first saw Cadapan and Empeño at Camp Tecson in Bulacan in September 2006. Manalo also said he last saw the two students in June 2007 in Limay, Bataan. Manalo said he escaped from military detention in August of that year, along with his brother Reynaldo.

Cadapan and Empeño remain missing to this day.

Activists groups have tagged Palparan as “Berdugo” (Butcher) for the string of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in areas where he was assigned.

Racent Arsega, vice chair of Anakbayan-Iloilo, said putting Palparan in jail “is part of the larger endeavor to put the Arroyo regime accountable for its various crimes against the Filipino people, including human rights violations, electoral fraud and massive plunder and corruption.”

The youth groups said they would also put the posters in other colleges and universities on Panay Island.

The posters encouraged those with information on Palparan’s whereabouts to report to the National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police and human rights groups.

The human rights group Panay Alliance-Karapatan along with the National Union of People’s Lawyers and other organizations also initiated the display of the posters in police stations in Iloilo City.

Palparan’s picture was placed beside the wanted posters of other criminal elements at the Iloilo City Police Office after a dialogue between leaders of the militant organizations and Senior Supt. Marietto Valerio, city police director.

“There’s a possibility that Gen. Palparan will be spotted on the island of Panay,” Reylan Vergara, secretary general of Panay Alliance-Karapatan, said.

He added that they had received reports a few years ago that Palparan was seen at one of the supermarkets in Jaro District in Iloilo City./INQUIRER