A COMPLAINT supported by the human rights alliance KARAPATAN will be filed before the Department of Justice on the abduction, torture and rape of Sherlyn T. Cadapan and Karen E. Empeño, two University of the Philippines activists who have been missing since 2006.
Erlinda T. Cadapan and Concepcion E. Empeño, mothers of Sherlyn and Karen respectively, are filing the criminal complaint. Named respondents are MGen. Jovito Palparan, Jr. (Ret.), the so-called “butcher” of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, together with Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado, 2Lt. Francis Mirabelle Samson, Arnel Enriquez, Donald Caigas and several “John and Jane Does.”
This is the first countersuit against Palparan after GMA’s term. Palparan has been tagged as a promoter of extra-judicial killings which claimed more than a thousand lives under Arroyo. This was later criticized strongly by local and international human rights groups and denied repeatedly by state forces.
A COMPLAINT supported by the human rights alliance KARAPATAN will be filed before the Department of Justice on the abduction, torture and rape of Sherlyn T. Cadapan and Karen E. Empeño, two University of the Philippines activists who have been missing since 2006.
Erlinda T. Cadapan and Concepcion E. Empeño, mothers of Sherlyn and Karen respectively, are filing the criminal complaint. Named respondents are MGen. Jovito Palparan, Jr. (Ret.), the so-called “butcher” of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, together with Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado, 2Lt. Francis Mirabelle Samson, Arnel Enriquez, Donald Caigas and several “John and Jane Does.”
This is the first countersuit against Palparan after GMA’s term. Palparan has been tagged as a promoter of extra-judicial killings which claimed more than a thousand lives under Arroyo. This was later criticized strongly by local and international human rights groups and denied repeatedly by state forces.
The move is included in the continuing action of civil society organizations to end the rule of impunity by seeking justice for victims and families who suffered extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, torture and other human rights violations under the GMA regime.
“We are so disappointed by the inaction of the present P-Noy administration to prosecute the perpetrators of the horrible human rights violations of the GMA regime that we and the victims and families have decided to initiate action against the known perpetrators so that justice can be served the victims and impunity be stopped,” Karapatan Chairperson Marie Hilao-Enriquez said.
The criminal case filed against MGen. Palparan came exactly a month after members of the Morong 43 filed a civil case against former President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo and several other generals and military and police officers.
Sherlyn and Karen were abducted from the house of Raquel Halili in Bgy. San Miguel, Hagonoy, Bulacan on June 26, 2006. They were among the 206 victims of enforced disappearance under the past administration.
Meanwhile, several witnesses are ready to present their testimonies on the Cadapan-Empeno case. At least two witnesses saw Sherlyn, Karen and a certain Manuel Merino being forced into a private stainless jeep with plate no. RTF 579. Another witness saw the same jeep parked inside the Headquarters of the 56th Infantry battalion in Iba, Hagonoy, Bulacan.
One of the witnesses, who was detained in a military detachment, was interrogated by a certain “2Lt. Francis Mirabelle Samson” about the two activists. Another witness attested to the fact that Sherlyn visited her on April 11, 2007 accompanied by two men and three women armed and wearing military uniforms. Another witness, who requested anonymity, saw Sherlyn and Karen while in detention in Camp Tecson. The witness narrated first-hand how Sherlyn and Karen were tortured and raped.
These testimonies have been presented in the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus and the Writ of Amparo filed for Sherlyn and Karen. On the basis of the same pieces of evidence, the Writ of Amparo was granted, and the Court of Appeals ordered the military to surface the two missing students in its decision in 2008. However, they remain missing to date.
The respondents are held criminally liable for the following crimes: Rape; Serious Physical Injuries; Arbitrary Detention; Delay in the Delivery of Detained Persons; Maltreatment of Prisoners; Grave Threats; Grave Coercion; and, Violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, all of which are generally accepted principles of international law adopted by the Philippines under the 1987 Constitution as part of the law of the land and which can be applied with equal force within Philippine jurisdiction.