Palparan trial resumes this April

Retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

CITY OF MALOLOS—After a monthlong break, the kidnapping trial of fugitive Major General Jovito Palparan and three other soldiers will resume this month.

Judge Teodora Gonzales of the Bulacan Regional Trial Court will address an 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 on the abduction of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño.

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

Gonzales took a mandatory monthlong 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.

On February 10, Gonzales inspected the Fort Bonifacio detention facilities to determine how Osorio and Anotado had been treated. Both soldiers surrendered to the court two days after it issued a warrant of arrest on Dece,ber 19 against them, Palparan and another fugitive, Master Sergeant Rizal Hilario.

A side issue that Gonzales may have to address is whether she would allow lawyer Jesus Santos, 85, to represent Palparan, after his presence in court was challenged last year by justice department prosecutors.

Santos, former lawyer and spokesperson of Jose Miguel Arroyo, the husband of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, joined Palparan’s defense team led by lawyer Narzal Mallares. Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon