Palparan in Hot Water at
UN Rights Body’s Session
The Arroyo
administration appears to consider recently-retired Maj. Gen. Jovito
Palparan, Jr. an asset. But he may turn out to be a liability for the
Philippine government at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
in Geneva, which has been in session to hear complaints of human rights
violations filed by several cause-oriented groups against the Arroyo
administration.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN
REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Karapatan's Marie Hilao-Enriquez
(third from left) discusses political killings in the country with
Dutch lawyers and members of the Asia Human rights Commission |
The Arroyo
administration appears to consider recently-retired Maj. Gen. Jovito
Palparan, Jr. an asset, as is shown by its having considered him for a
position as deputy for anti-insurgency campaign at the National Security
Council (NSC) and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s own expressed
intention of eventually appointing him to a post still related to the
counter-“insurgency” drive. But he may turn out to be a liability for the
Philippine government at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)
in Geneva, which has been in session to hear complaints of human rights
violations filed by several cause-oriented groups against the Arroyo
administration.
|
The complaints focus
on high-profile cases of extra-judicial killings and enforced
disappearances. Data filed by Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of
People’s Rights), represented by its secretary-general Marie Hilao-Enriquez,
at the UNHRC, show a total of 755 extra-judicial killings and 184 enforced
disappearances since 2001, when Arroyo was catapulted to power through a
popular uprising.
The figures do not
include other human rights violations allegedly perpetrated by state
forces including torture, forcible evacuations, food blockades, illegal
arrests and others.
Based on figures from
Karapatan-Central Luzon, 109 of the extra-judicial killings and 62 of the
disappearances occurred in the said region. Of these, Karapatan-Central
Luzon records further show, 71 extra-judicial killings and 46 enforced
disappearances took place from September 2005 to August 2006 – all during
Palparan’s stint as commanding officer of the Philippine Army’s 7th
Infantry Division, which is based at Ft. Ramon Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva
Ecija.
Several of these
cases were tackled in an urgent alert submitted Sept. 26 to the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva.
Urgent alert
“We wish to stress
that these unabated political killings and abductions have escalated after
Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan was appointed by the Arroyo government as
commanding officer of the 7th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army in
the region in September 2005,” reads part of the urgent alert, which was
signed by Karapatan-Central Luzon chairperson Sr. Cecile Ruiz and Mothers
and Relatives Against Tyranny (Martyr) secretary-general Jocelyn Javier.
Palparan has been
tagged as notorious for human rights violations allegedly committed by
soldiers under his command since the late 1980s. He particularly earned
the ire of human rights groups and local government leaders for atrocities
reportedly committed against civilians in Oriental Mindoro and Eastern
Visayas, where he was also assigned under the Arroyo administration.
These were also cited
by Ruiz and Javier in the urgent alert. “Prior to his transfer, General
Palparan had been blamed for hundreds of summary killings and involuntary
disappearances of political activists, human rights advocates, lawyers,
public officials, church workers and other unarmed civilians during his
stints in Mindoro, Laguna, Eastern Visayas and other regions where he was
assigned,” Ruiz and Javier stated.
The urgent alert also
cited the Palparan-led “saturation drive” in the provinces of Nueva Ecija,
Bulacan and Aurora, in which thousands of residents were forced to secure
cedulas (community tax certificates) to prove they were not members
of the New People’s Army (NPA).
“Those who failed to
show this document were subjected to intense interrogation, torture or
humiliating and degrading treatment by the military,” Ruiz and Javier
stated. “This included one who was made to walk home in his underwear and
another who was forced to eat her expired cedula. A barangay
kagawad (village councilman) in Nueva Ecija was tortured while
undergoing custodial investigation by the military, causing him a nervous
breakdown which culminated in his committing suicide. Moreover, homes of
local members of urban poor organization Kadamay or Kalipunan ng Damayang
Mahihirap (National Alliance of Urban Poor Organizations) were painted
(with) Xs by the military as part of their witch-hunting operations and
harassment.”
Two students
Palparan’s stint as
commanding officer of the 7th Infantry Division is marked,
among others, by the disappearance of Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan,
both students of the University of the Philippines (UP); and peasant
organizer Manuel Merino – who were abducted by soldiers on June 26 in
Hagonoy, Bulacan and are still missing.
Empeño, a graduating
BA Sociology student, was in Hagonoy doing research on a peasant community
for her thesis.
It was dawn and she
and Cadapan, a youth organizer in the same town, were asleep when soldiers
barged into the hut they were staying in. The fact that Cadapan was then
five months pregnant did not protect her from a punch in the stomach. Both
were blindfolded; in Empeño’s case, her eyes were covered with a shirt
that had been forcibly removed from her.
The soldiers then
went to Merino’s hut a few steps away and took him as well.
At the UNHRC session,
the Arroyo administration has come under fire on the issue of enforced
disappearances. The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances, chaired by Stephen Toope, had named the Philippines as one
of several countries with “outstanding cases” of disappearance.
“While in the past
disappearances could be blamed primarily on military dictatorships, mostly
in Latin America, today (these are) also perpetrated in more complex
situations of internal conflict, such as Colombia, Nepal, the Russian
Federation, Iraq, and the Sudan, the group said in its report. “In other
countries, such as Algeria and the Philippines, political repression of
opponents resulted in hundreds of cases of disappearance.”
Murder, deportation or forced transfer of
population, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty
in violation of fundamental rules of international law, torture;
persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political,
racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, or other grounds
that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law;
enforced disappearance of persons; and other inhumane acts of a similar
character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body
or to mental or physical health are classified as crimes against humanity
under international human rights instruments.
In high regard
All throughout, the
Arroyo administration has held and continues to hold Palparan in high
regard. He was given a Medal of Valor in 2004 and a Distinguished Service
Star in 2005.
In her State of the
Nation Address (SoNA) last July, Arroyo praised Palparan for his work in
the counter-“insurgency” campaign.
“Sa mga lalawigang
sakop ng 7th Division, nakikibaka sa kalaban si Jovito Palparan” (In
those provinces under the supervision of the 7th [Infantry] Division,
[Major General] Jovito Palparan is battling the enemy), Arroyo said in her
SoNA. “Hindi siya aatras hanggang makawala sa gabi ng kilabot ang mga
pamayanan at makaahon sa bukang-liwayway ng hustisya at kalayaan” (He
will not back down until the communities emerge from the night and rise
toward the dawn of justice and freedom.)
A few days before
Palparan’s retirement from the military service on Sept. 11, Presidential
Chief of Staff Mike Defensor announced that he was to be appointed as
deputy for anti-insurgency campaign at the National Security Council (NSC).
It was Lt. Gen. Pedro Cabuay, commanding officer of the military’s
Southern Luzon, who ended up getting the position, however.
But Arroyo has
expressed intention of eventually appointing Palparan to a post still
related to the counter-“insurgency” drive.
The 47-member UNHRC,
formed through a UN General Assembly resolution on March 5, is mandated to
ensure the compliance of UN member states with international human rights
instruments. It may recommend appropriate actions to the UN General
Assembly based on complaints filed by individual victims or non-government
organizations.
Among other actions,
the UNHRC could vote to suspend the membership of the Philippines in the
body for gross and systematic human rights violations. Bulatlat
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