‘Special treatment’ | Groups slam transfer of Palparan to military jail

“President Aquino has never thought of the safety and security of its citizens, yet, the butcher Palparan, with hundreds of victims of human rights violations, gets top priority for protection, not unlike the treatment the plunderers get in this rotten regime.” – Karapatan

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Progressive groups assailed the transfer of retired Maj. Jovito Palparan to the Philippine Army Custodial Center.

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines moved heaven and earth to secure and bring back home their impunity icon Palparan. Although not surprising as it is packaged with Palparan’s supposed arrest, the transfer is nonetheless ominous for the case’s trial, eventual prosecution, and jailing of Palparan,” Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, said.

In a hearing Sept. 15, Judge Teordora Gonzales of Malolos Regional Trial Court Branch 14 granted Palparan’s motion to be transferred to the military detention center.

Kin of victims, human rights defenders slam transfer of Palparan to military jail (Photo by Raymund B. Villanueva / Kodao Productions)
Kin of victims, human rights defenders slam transfer of Palparan to military jail (Photo by Raymund B. Villanueva / Kodao Productions)

In a television interview, Lt. Col. Noel Detoyato said Palparan would not be extended special treatment, in accordance with his commitment order.

His two other co-accused Col. Felipe Anotado and Staff Sgt. Edgardo Osorio are also detained in the Philippine Army Custodial Center.

Palabay said the military has been “building up towards this transfer using the worn-out alibi, if not imagined, threat to the safety and security of Palparan,”

She, however, said “President Aquino has never thought of the safety and security of its citizens, yet, the butcher Palparan, with hundreds of victims of human rights violations, gets top priority for protection, not unlike the treatment the plunderers get in this rotten regime.”

Special treatment

Contrary to pronouncements of the military, Vencer Crisostomo, chairperson of Anakbayan, said Palparan’s transfer is “daang matuwid-style VIP treatment for human rights violators.”

“This homecoming is a grave insult to the families of the victims of extrajudicial killings, human rights abuse, torture and disappearances,” he added.

(Photo by Raymund B. Villanueva / Kodao Productions)
(Photo by Raymund B. Villanueva / Kodao Productions)

Palparan was arrested last Aug. 12 due to a standing three-year-old warrant in relation to the abduction of two University of the Philippines students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan.

Kilusang Mayo Uno chairperson Elmer Labog said the special treatment extended to Palparan shows that President Aquino has “no intention at all of giving justice to Palparan’s victims and of punishing those who have committed human rights violations in the past.”

Such special treatment, he added, would perpetuate the culture of impunity under Aquino.

Virtually free

Labog said Palparan is now virtually free. It has killed “any hope for justice for the hundreds killed, abducted and tortured by this butcher.”

“It is enraging for us workers that the court is concerned with Palparan’s security and does not consider the security of his victims once this mass murderer is set loose and allowed to continue his reign of terror inside the comforts of an AFP camp,” he added.

“This is yet another proof that the Aquino regime and the Armed Forces of the Philippines coddle butchers like Palparan and are protecting him,” Aya Santos, secretary general of Desaparecidos, said. “Bringing Palparan back to camp is good as saying, he is back in power among his minions,” Santos said.

The Aquino administration and the military, according to Palabay, will not allow the likes of Palparan to be jailed as the “arrest and jailing of Palparan is an indictment of the whole AFP, which abounds with Palparan clones.” (https://www.bulatlat.com)

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