Peace network welcomes arrest of Palparan, calls for justice

By KAPAYAPAAN
August 12, 2014

QUEZON CITY – A broad network of peace advocates, Kapayapaan - campaign for a just and lasting peace - welcomed the arrest of retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. and expressed hopes that justice would soon be served to victims of human rights violations.

Dr. Lito Manalili, former Dean of the UP College of Social Work and Community Development and one of the convenors of Kapayapaan, said that the arrest of the military official linked to gross human rights violations shows that there are still patriotic and democratic elements in state security forces who uphold the rule of law.

Palparan was arrested early morning of August 12 by elements of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). A warrant of arrest was issued against him in December 2011 for charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in relation to the enforced disappearance of University of the Philippines (UP) students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan.

“This is a good step but there is a long way to go to make Palparan accountable for all the human rights abuses he committed against activists and civilians,” Manalili said.

Besides the Cadapan-Empeno case, Palparan was identified as the mastermind behind the killings of Southern Tagalog human rights defenders Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy in April 2003. Palparan is also implicated in the hundreds of cases of extrajudicial killings in Eastern Visayas, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog where he was assigned during the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The network also called for the scrapping of counterinsurgency program Oplan Bayanihan. “Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan, a continuation of Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya, which creates and emboldens the likes of Palparan,” Manalili said. “Instead of addressing the roots of the armed conflict, these counterinsurgency policies target activists and dissenters and resulted in gross human rights violations.”

Kapayapaan noted that former United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, in his visit to the Philippines during Arroyo’s term, attributed the extrajudicial killings to the Philippine government’s counterinsurgency program. Instead of reversing the policy and practice of gross human rights violations, Arroyo went to the extent of publicly praising Palparan in her 2006 State of the Nation Address.