Palparan hunters come up empty

Jovito Palparan Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The National Bureau of Investigation’s search for Jovito Palparan has not yielded any result more than six months after the retired major general went into hiding, an NBI official in Central Luzon said on Tuesday.

“Until now, [the result of the search is] a big negative. Give me some leads if you have,” lawyer Ricardo Diaz, NBI regional director, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a text message.

But Diaz said the agency has not called off the search and arrest ordered by a judge in Bulacan, where Palparan was charged with kidnapping in relation to the disappearance of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in 2006.

As of May, NBI agents had checked 12 areas where Palparan was reportedly sighted. “We have taken all information, including those from Justice Secretary [Leila de Lima],” Diaz said.

He said he could not understand why no one was biting the P1-million bounty on Palparan.

The former general represented the party-list group Bantay in the House of Representatives. When he was in active service, he was blamed for extrajudicial killings in his tours of duty, including in Central Luzon. For this, he earned the dubious distinction as “The Butcher.”

NBI personnel and policemen have failed to find Palparan although Malacañang has ordered law enforcement agencies to continue the hunt. He tried to flee the country through the Clark International Airport in Pampanga in December but was stopped by immigration officers.

Two of his coaccused, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado and S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio, are detained at Fort Bonifacio and undergoing trial in the Bulacan regional trial court.

Another soldier implicated in the crime, M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario, remains at large. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon