Legacy left by Palparan: 35 ‘archived’ abuse cases

Retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. RAFFY LERMA/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—It has been 10 years since Joey Estriber, an environmental activist, was abducted allegedly by government soldiers as he stepped out of an Internet cafe in Baler town in Aurora province on March 3, 2006.

“It has now been a decade but the investigation has not yielded any result. There is no news if he still alive or has been murdered,” said Alfonso van Zijl, the victim’s colleague in the Church-based non-government organization Bataris Formation Center.

“[Estriber was not given any] decent burial. No father to four children. No husband to his wife Lourdes,” Van Zijl said in an e-mail to the Inquirer.

He said he and Lourdes followed up the case at the provincial police last month and found there was “no active investigation.”

Lourdes appealed again to President Aquino to help her locate her husband or help her find his grave.

That situation is not unique to Estriber’s case.

At least 35 of 55 cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances that happened between Nov. 17, 2006, and March 27, 2015, have been mostly “archived,” according to a report released by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Central Luzon.

Archived cases are “subject to reopening once leads or pieces of evidence exist,” said lawyer Jasmin Regino, CHR regional director.

The report said 36 cases had been archived because the perpetrators are unknown, there are no witnesses or the motives are not known.

According to the report, 52 of the 55 cases took place when then Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. headed the Army’s 7th Infantry Division from Sept. 2, 2005, until he retired on Sept. 11, 2006.

The 55 cases are less than half of the 136 of human rights violations in Central Luzon documented by the watchdog Karapatan during Palparan’s tour of duty. These consisted of 71 summary executions, five massacres, 14 frustrated killings and 46 enforced disappearances.

The 36 archived cases involved 24 victims of killings and 13 victims of enforced disappearances. Two cases reached the provincial or city prosecutors while five cases were closed as the victims reappeared and did not pursue their cases.

For eight cases brought to its attention, the CHR did not go beyond assisting in the investigation and giving financial aid as the relatives failed to submit documents to file cases.

Four cases advanced to the regional trial courts: the killing of Ricardo Ramos, president of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union, allegedly by Army man Roderick de la Cruz; the kidnapping of the brothers Reynaldo and Raymond Manalo allegedly by M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario and Palparan; and the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño and Bulacan farmer Manuel Merino.

Palparan is standing trial for the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of Cadapan and Empeño, who remain missing.

Palparan was arrested by National Bureau of Investigation agents on Aug. 12, 2014, in Sta. Mesa, Manila, after more than three years in hiding.