Palparan loses bail bid in kidnapping rap

CITY OF MALOLOS—It has not been a good month for detained retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.

On Jan. 22, a Bulacan court junked Palparan’s second appeal for the grant of bail after it turned down his first request last year, according to documents obtained on Thursday by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL).

Palparan and two other soldiers, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado and S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio, have been standing trial for the kidnapping and illegal detention of University of the Philippines students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan, who were allegedly taken by soldiers in 2006. A fourth accused, M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario, is at large.

In November last year, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales affirmed her office’s Feb. 9, 2015, decision to charge Palparan with the 2006 kidnapping of Raymund Manalo, a farmer. A copy of the Ombudsman’s ruling was received by NUPL on Jan. 28.

Manalo was a government witness who testified last year against Palparan in the Empeño-Cadapan kidnapping trial.

Palparan was upset about the latest court developments, said his counsel, lawyer Diosab Formilleza.

Last year, the retired general had asked the court to grant him bail, arguing that evidence against him was not substantial enough. He made a second appeal after the bail request was denied.

But Judge Alexander Tamayo of Branch 15 of the Bulacan Regional Trial Court dismissed Palparan’s motion for reconsideration, after concluding that the former general had “no new compelling grounds… worth a reconsideration.”

“The evidence presented by the prosecution is strong, sufficient to substantiate the present criminal charges and it is now up for the accused to refute further the evidence presented against him,” Tamayo said in his Jan. 22 decision.

Under these circumstances, “the court believes that bail in favor of the accused should not be allowed,” the judge said. With a report from Ron Lopez, Inquirer Central Luzon