Palparan trial set to resume

CITY OF MALOLOS, Philippines—After a month-long break, the court hearing on the kidnapping charges against fugitive former Major General Jovito Palparan and three other soldiers will resume next month.

Judge Teodora Gonzales of the Bulacan regional trial court will address a pending appeal made by Palparan’s lawyers to recall the warrant of arrest and hold-departure order against him.

She will try to resolve these issues before the government can conduct a preliminary investigation of the 2006 abduction of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño.

One of Palparan’s lawyers claimed that the students may be alive, which upset their parents.

Gonzales took a mandatory month-long leave that began on March 1. “Even before the Palparan case was raffled to her court, she had already scheduled her mandatory vacation leave and she would return in April,” said lawyer Melba David, Branch 14 clerk of court.

The judge was also asked to resolve the motion filed by the Department of Justice and lawyer Edre Olalia to transfer Palparan’s coaccused, S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio and Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado, from the Military Custodial Unit in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City to the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City. Olalia is representing Osorio and Anotado.