THE AFP CUSTODIAL Center in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, is the new home of retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr., who is facing criminal charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention for the 2006 disappearance of two students from the University of the Philippines. RAFFY LERMA
CITY OF MALOLOS—The families of missing University of the Philippines students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan asked a Bulacan court on Thursday to transfer retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. from a military facility to an ordinary jail in Metro Manila while he stands trial for the kidnapping of their daughters.
Lawyer Edre Olalia, secretary general of National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers and the families’ lead counsel, filed the motion 10 days after Bulacan Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Teodora Gonzales allowed Palparan on Sept. 15 to be transferred from the Bulacan Provincial Jail to the Philippine Army Custodial Center in Fort Bonifacio.
The motion was received by the RTC here at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday.
Olalia, in the motion, told the court that “other civilian detention facilities have yet to be explored by this honorable court as feasible options for the detention of Palparan.”
“We are seeking a new order to be issued committing accused Palparan to a civilian jail, particularly the Security Intensive Care Area of the Metro Manila Jail District, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), inside Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig, or in the alternative, any of the other facilities managed by the [BJMP] inside Camp Bagong Diwa: the Taguig City Jail, Quezon City Jail Annex or Manila City Jail,” the motion said.
“The detention of [Palparan] in a civilian jail is one, we humbly submit, prescribed by the rules and ultimately guided by reason and justice for all parties,” it said.
The motion questioned the court’s decision to allow Palparan’s transfer to a military detention cell.
“Why, for heaven’s sake, [of] all places [was Palparan taken to] his old stomping grounds—the headquarters of the Army? What credible assurance and verifiable means does the State and the private complainants have that indeed… Palparan will not be given special treatment, ‘babysat,’ if you wish, away from public sight when nobody is looking?” the families said in the motion.
Olalia said it was “simply unfair and unacceptable” for someone like Palparan, who has retired from military service and is facing rights violations charges, “to taunt the [families’] search for real justice and consecrate impunity.”
Palparan will return to the Bulacan RTC Branch 14 here on Sept. 29 to attend his trial. Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon