MANILA, Philippines\u2014Following Jovito Palparan\u2019s failure to surrender to the authorities as expected on Friday, Commission Human Rights Chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales and human rights lawyer Edre Olalia gave this bit of advice to the National Bureau of Investigation: Don\u2019t ever trust him to keep his word.<\/p>\n
“It could probably be a ruse to deflect attention,\u201d Olalia, a member of a team of lawyers for two missing student-activists of the University of the Philippines, said of Palparan\u2019s offer to surrender. “He\u2019s biding his time. He probably has some dirty plans to execute an escape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosales called the NBI “na\u00efve\u201d and “short-sighted\u201d for relying on the word of the retired Army major general, who is facing charges of kidnapping and illegal detention in connection with the disappearance in\u00a0 2006 of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empe\u00f1o.<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s naivete and shortsightedness. You don\u2019t rely on the word of someone who knows he\u2019s ready to be arrested and there\u2019s a lot of evidence against him,\u201d she said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n
“They can\u2019t trust him; they should not trust him. His whole performance of duty was a concretization of why people should not trust him. He had no accountability. He took shortcuts to do his job. He violated human rights,\u2019\u2019 she added.<\/p>\n
With his network of friends in the Armed Forces, Palparan could always hide and escape, and it would be prudent for the government “to mobilize all its forces to try to get him,\u2019\u2019 Rosales said. “No stone should be left unturned.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
After apparently sending feelers, Palparan did not show up at the appointed time and place of surrender Thursday morning, NBI Central Luzon Director Ricardo Diaz said.<\/p>\n
Palparan and three others are charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention for the disappearance of Empe\u00f1o and Cadapan, who were abducted from a home in Hagonoy, Bulacan in June 2006. At the time, Palparan was the commander of the 7th Infantry Division in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija.<\/p>\n
They had not been seen by their families since then.<\/p>\n
After the Department of Justice recommended the filing of charges against him, Palparan last Monday tried to fly to Singapore through the international airport in Pampanga, but was barred by immigration agents. The next day, a local court issued a warrant for his arrest. He has not been seen since then.<\/p>\n
Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of People\u2019s Lawyers handling the cases of Empe\u00f1o and Cadapan, said it was difficult to trust Palparan given his “proven track record of being cunning and misleading people and lying through his teeth.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
“If the surrender feeler is true, why not? But until that happens, the burden is on him to disprove that he can be believed at all,\u2019\u2019 he said on the phone.<\/p>\n
“What\u2019s important is for him to turn himself in. He can be armed and dangerous, if he has a connection with the military. He also has a security agency. I hope he doesn\u2019t aggravate things as they already are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
“He can\u2019t hide forever. He\u2019s doing himself and his family a disservice. For as long as he\u2019s on the run, the whole country is his prison cell. Every nook and cranny, every crevice, every building and car is going to be searched because people know how notorious he is. His face is splashed on the papers. Even the common person would probably recognize him,\u2019\u2019 Olalia added.<\/p>\n
“Do they want to spend the holidays first? They have no right. They have denied many victims of their holidays with their families,\u201d Olalia said.<\/p>\n
Rosales said the NBI should have kept an eye on Palparan from the time the immigration authorities barred him from leaving the country until the local court issued the warrant for his arrest.<\/p>\n
“They should have made sure that he was under surveillance, and within their grasp,\u201d she said. “I feel bad that he\u2019s at large, and we\u2019re an archipelago and that he still has friends within the Armed Forces.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Olalia made the same observation.<\/p>\n
“From the airport, they should have put him under surveillance. That time he was a potential fugitive from justice. There was an opportunity that was missed. Now they\u2019re scrambling to find him,\u201d Olalia said. “I\u2019m not trying to cast aspersions. I hope the missed opportunity would not be repeated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following Jovito Palparan\u2019s failure to surrender to the authorities as expected on Friday, Commission Human Rights Chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales and human rights lawyer Edre Olalia gave this bit of advice to the National Bureau of Investigation: Don\u2019t ever trust him to keep his word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,45],"tags":[89,5218],"byline":[132],"source":[206078],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n