MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor)’s report to the Department of Justice on whether it complied with procedural requirements before allowing convict Retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan to have an exclusive interview was “insufficient,” said Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Sunday.
This came after the DOJ through Justice Undersecretary Deo Marco required BuCor to submit a written report on the matter after it allowed SMNI, a media company owned by President Rodrigo Duterte’s spiritual adviser, to interview Palparan who was convicted in 2018 for kidnapping University of the Philippines students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan.
“The BuCor submitted a report last week, but according to Usec. Deo Marco, he found the report insufficient to determine full compliance with the procedural requirements before acting on a request for interview of a PDL,” said Gueverrra.
“So he asked the BuCor to submit a supplemental report,” he added.
The said interview was conducted by Lorraine Badoy, spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), who also happens to be the subject of complaints at the Office of the Ombudsman for her relentless Red-tagging of activists and even of Vice President Leni Robredo.
She, herself, in the interview claimed that the reason why they invited Palpalan was to “honor and vindicate him.”
Palparan is currently serving a life sentence and is also facing pending cases of two counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention with serious physical injuries for his alleged involvement in the abduction of brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo from their home in San Ildefonso, Bulacan, on Feb. 14, 2006.
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