Palparan enters Senate Magic 12 in local absentee voting

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

Senatorial candidate retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan on Tuesday broke into the “Magic 12” of probable winners in the Senate race among local absentee voters.

Palparan,  currently detained at the Army Custodial Center in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City for kidnapping and serious illegal detention of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, ranked 11th place with 7,481 votes.

This is Palparan’s second bid for a Senate seat. He first ran, and lost, in 2010 shortly after he became a representative for Bantay party-list.

He became a fugitive in 2011 after being implicated in the kidnapping and detention of Cadapan and Empeño and was caught by authorities in 2014 in Manila.

Tagged by rights groups as “The Butcher” for allegedly being the chief architect of torture and killing of political activists during his term in the military, Palparan is currently on trial with three other military officials—detained Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado and S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio, and M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario, who is still at large—for the disappearance of Cadapan and Empeño in 2006.

Former senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson is the top choice among local absentee voters with 13, 779 votes. He is followed by former senator Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri with 11,411 votes and former senator Richard Gordon with 10,789 votes.

Other senators who made it to the “Magic 12” among local absentee voters are: Senate President Franklin Drilon, Sarangani representative Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, reelectionist senators Sergio “Serge” Osmeña III, Ralph Recto and Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, former senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, and reelectionist senator Teofisto “TG” Guingona III.

According to Commission on Elections (Comelec) data, there are 19,225 local absentee voters who turned up for the three-day local absentee voting last April.

Those eligible to cast their votes as local absentee voters are government officials and employees, members of the media, members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and members of the Philippine National Police who cannot vote in the elections because of their duties.RAM/rga

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