Return Palparan to Bulacan, kin of missing UP students ask CA

A member of human rights group Karapatan holds a placard showing the group’s protest of the transfer of retired Maj. General Jovito Palparan Jr. to a Philippine Army detention cell in Fort Bonifacio from the Bulacan provincial jail in a rally outside the Edsa gate of Camp Aguinaldo. FILE PHOTO

CITY OF MALOLOS, Philippines—The families of missing University of the Philippines (UP) students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño have asked the Court of Appeals (CA) to move detained kidnapping suspect retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. from a military detention facility to a civilian jail, preferably his former cell at the Bulacan provincial jail.

Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño, mothers of the two student activists, asked the appellate court to “correct the grave abuse of discretion” allegedly committed by Judge Teodora Gonzales of the Bulacan regional trial court when she allowed Palparan to be transferred from the Bulacan jail to the Philippine Army Custodial Center in Fort Bonifacio on Sept. 15.

Palparan is facing trial in Gonzales’ court for kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges in connection with the disappearance of the two students in 2006.

The retired major general had disappeared shortly after the charges were filed but was arrested by government agents on Oct. 18 in Sampaloc, Manila.

Army Col. Felipe Anotado and M/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio are also facing trial for their alleged role in the June 26, 2006, abduction of the two students by government soldiers in Hagonoy town, Bulacan province.

M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario, the fourth military officer charged along with Palparan and the two officers, remains at large.

In their 30-page special civil action for certiorari, the families urged the CA to annul and set aside Gonzales’ Sept. 15 ruling as well as her Oct. 20 decision to dismiss their motion to move Palparan to a civilian jail because of a technicality.

During the Oct. 20 hearing, Gonzales observed that Department of Justice prosecutors could not submit a letter that would support Palparan’s detention in a civilian jail nor did they provide signed documents acceding to the proposal of the students’ families to transfer Palparan to any Metro Manila jail.

The petition urged the CA to impose a new order for the detention of Palparan in the Bulacan provincial jail or any alternative civilian jail.

Palparan’s lawyers had asked for his transfer from the Bulacan jail due to fears he was not safe there.

Lawyer Narsal Mallares, Palparan’s counsel, said his client’s detention facility should not matter as long as he attended the court hearing.

On Nov. 24, Palparan will again be brought to the Bulacan court for a pretrial conference. The court has set the start of the formal trial on Dec. 8, when Gonzales will also determine Palparan’s petition for bail.–Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon