‘It’s a good thing you caught me,’ Palparan tells arresting officers

Fugitive Philippine Army Maj.Gen. Jovito Palparan gestures with a thumbs down sign as he talks to the media at the National Bureau of Investigation following his capture by NBI agents Tuesday, Aug.12, 2014 in Manila, Philippines. AP

MANILA, Philippines – Nearly three years of hunting fugitive retired Major General Jovito Palparan, the very institution that molded and captured him admitted that the pursuit was so difficult.

General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr., Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff, said in a press conference Tuesday morning that the AFP had a tough time in capturing Palparan, who went into hiding in December 2011 after he was indicted of two counts of kidnapping and illegal detention.

“I think we had a difficult time in capturing him,” Catapang said at the Department of National Defense inside Camp Aguinaldo. “He knows the procedure, the nooks and crannies, in fact when he was captured he said ‘it’s a good thing you caught me.'”

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin echoed Catapang’s musings of Palparan being an elusive fugitive.

“That man was once a soldier. I too am a former soldier, and we were taught to never get caught,” Gazmin said. “Always use the techniques and tactics in evasion.”

Major General Eduardo Año, chief of the Intelligence Service of the AFP, said members of the Naval Intelligence and Security Force were following up a lead in terms of intelligence and information about Palparan’s whereabouts.

Palparan was arrested at around 3:30 a.m. in a house in Sta. Mesa through the joint operations of the National Bureau of Investigation and the AFP’s Task Force Runway, which was established in 2012, a group that Gazmin formed.

Año said that Palparan hid in Pampanga, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and momentarily in Cagayan de Oro and that there were three occasions when the New People’s Army rebels got close to him.

Catapang added that Palparan was not in the best physical shape when he was arrested. He needed medical care for his diabetes, he added.

With Palparan now under the custody of the government, Catapang said the former Commanding General of the 7th Infantry Division could now defend himself from the accusations thrown at him.

“It’s better that he was captured, so now he can face the accusations thrown at him, especially those alleged human rights violations that he did,” Catapang said.

He added the arrest was a welcome development in the AFP’s goals of further adhering to humanitarian principles.

Despite Palparan being once a member of the AFP, Gazmin said that he would do everything to safeguard the society.

“It’s part of my mandate – capture those who disturb the society,” Gazmin said.

Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala, AFP Public Affairs Office Chief, said it was better that the government captured Palparan before the NPA got hold of the fugitive.

“This will protect him from the NPA who has a standing order to have him killed which the AFP believes is ill-fitting in a democratic society,” Zagala said.

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