By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Progressive groups expressed their dismay over the Malolos Regional Trial Court’s dismissal of kidnapping and serious illegal detention with serious physical injuries against retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. filed by brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo on Oct. 6, Friday.
In a statement, human rights group Karapatan strongly condemned the decision of Malolos RTC Branch 19 Judge Francisco Felizmenio.
“We are enraged at how this dishonorable court junked the truthful, credible and consistent accounts of the Manalo brothers, which have been affirmed many times over by several courts, including the Supreme Court, when they stood as key witnesses against Palparan et.al in the abduction and disappearance of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said in a statement.
Palabay added that they were appalled at how the Malolos RTC “crassly disregarded the history and legal battle that the case of the Manalo brothers have gone through for 16 years since he was abducted by Palparan’s men in 2007.”
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“This court’s unspeakable, dastardly act invalidated the abduction, enforced disappearance, torture, and sufferings endured by the Manalo brothers. Is this part of a grand scheme that will enable Palparan et al’s pardon in the near future?” Palabay asked.
Karapatan and other groups, along with Raymond Manalo, also denounced the Malolos RTC decision in an indignation protest at the Boy Scout Circle in Quezon City.
WATCH: Raymond Manalo, one of the Manalo brothers who filed cases against retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, expressing rage and dismay at the indignation protest today in Boy Scout Circle, Quezon City. pic.twitter.com/akTUqwnqWY
— Bulatlat (@bulatlat) October 6, 2023
‘Palparan’s acquittal could embolden fascists’
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), meanwhile, said that Palparan’s case “is a reminder that state forces are directly involved in the abduction of activists and human rights defenders.”
“Despite the incarceration of Palparan, police and military units continue to be involved in serious human rights violations, especially after the government of Rodrigo Duterte waged a brutal ‘war on drugs’ and all-out war against the communist movement,” said Bayan Secretary General Raymond Palatino.
He added that Palparan’s acquittal could embolden fascists in the bureaucracy to commit more violence targeting activists, critics, and other opposition forces.
“We warn against the crackdown on voices denouncing corruption, cronyism, puppetry to imperialist powers, and plunder of our resources,” Palatino said.
ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro also said that the court’s acquittal of Palparan is especially worrisome as “it occured in an environment of red-tagging and terrorist labeling, the NTF-ELCAC as well as the ballooning confidential and intelligence funds.”
“All together, they embolden human rights violators to emulate Palparan to commit even more despicable acts like kidnapping, incommunicado detention, torture, and the like against innocents, just like what they did to the Manalo brothers, Karen and Sherlyn, Dyan Gumanao and Armand Dayoha, as well as Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro,” Castro said in a statement.
Fight for accountability continues
The National Union of Peoples Lawyers (NUPL) who served as private prosecutor in the consolidated criminal cases filed against Palparan, ranking military personnel and CAFGU Active Auxiliary, among others, lamented that the court’s decision is “a loss difficult to accept.”
The group said that after all, the Manalo brothers continue to bear the scars of the brutality inflicted on them and the trauma caused by their captivity.
However, the group said they will face this “set-back” with “a determination to continue pursuing justice to the darkest corners, a determination, as lawyers, to meet injustice with resilience.”
The progressive lawyers also gave a stark reminder to what they call “petty tyrants, especially those now thumping their chests amid the funds poured their way beyond audit and laws like the Anti-Terrorism Act configured for them to be easily abused: power is temporary.”
“The law, if wielded to advance the cause of the voiceless and to defend the defenseless, can still bring low the mighty and strip the untouchables of their invincibility,” the group said in a statement.
Progressive groups also expressed their solidarity with Manalo and pledged to continue to support him in his quest for justice.
“The aim of fascists like Palparan is to silence dissent and spread fear. We will push back and resist the normalization of tyranny. We will continue to speak truth to power and fight for justice,” Palatino said.
He also called on his fellow Filipinos to stand in solidarity with the families and victims of enforced disappearances and state terror. “Let us not allow the systematic clampdown on our civil liberties,” he said.
Palabay also said that they continue to support the Manalo brothers and all survivors of abduction and torture “for standing strong against these challenges.” (RTS,RVO) 
