“The arrest of Jovito Palparan, a retired army major general, marks a rare challenge to the country’s rampant impunity, which the government of President Benigno Aquino III has failed to adequately address,” Carlos Conde, Human Rights Watch
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — The United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Southeast Asia welcomed the arrest of retired Major Gen. Jovito Palparan early morning of Aug. 12.
“We welcome the arrest by the Filipino Army of former Maj. General Jovito Palparan, which represents an important step towards addressing impunity for serious human rights abuses in the Philippines,” the statement read.
Palparan was arrested due to a standing three-year-old warrant for two counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in relation to the enforced disappearance of two University of the Philippines students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan, who, along with farmer Manuel Merino, were abducted in Hagonoy, Bulacan on June 26, 2006.
He is still being detained at the National Bureau of Investigation after his lawyers filed in the morning of Aug. 14 an urgent ex-parte motion to keep him there. Judge Teodora Gonzales of the Malolos regional court issued an order on Aug. 13 instructing the NBI to bring the arrested general to the Bulacan Provincial Jail.
As of this writing, the NBI has yet to heed the court order, and has cited insufficient men to ensure Palparan’s security during the transfer and also because he is purportedly scheduled to take a blood test.
Apart from Empeño and Cadapan, Palparan has also been implicated in various killings, abductions and torture of activists under then President Gloria Arroyo’s counterinsurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya.
The OHCHR said the United Nations, in a 2007 report by Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions, had long recommended that the government take “concrete steps to put an end to those aspects of counterinsurgency operations which have led to the targeting and execution of many individuals working with civil society organizations.”
“The arrest of Jovito Palparan, a retired army major general, marks a rare challenge to the country’s rampant impunity, which the government of President Benigno Aquino III has failed to adequately address,” Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch said.
“Palparan’s reputation for abuses made him a symbol of military brutality during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. During her State of the Nation Address in 2006, Arroyo publicly praised Palparan for his role in a military counterinsurgency campaign that had resulted in widespread human rights violations,” Conde said.
HRW said Palparan’s arrest would give the Philippine government an opportunity to address and end human rights violations in the Philippines.
“That means ensuring that Palparan goes to trial without interference from the powerful elements in the military who might seek to protect him.” Conde said.
Apart from Palparan, the HRW also urged the Aquino government to look for other high-profile human rights violators such as former Mayor Rey Uy, the alleged mastermind of the infamous Tagum City Death Squad.
Conde said this would mean jumpstarting the judicial superbody that Aquino created in 2012 tasked to investigate and prosecute those behind extrajudicial killings.
“Failure to do so will be a betrayal of the victims of human rights violations who have looked to Aquino to end the status quo of impunity rather than perpetuate it,” Conde said.
The OHCHR, for its part, said, “ensuring justice in this case will set an important precedent for the Philippines and South East Asia region, where impunity remains an issue of serious concern.” 
