"This is a historic day for all victims of human rights violations," Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said yesterday as the group saw through that Ret. Maj. Jovito Palparan Jr. is brought to Bulacan Provincial Jail from the court hearing at the Malolos Regional Trial Court.
"This is a historic day for all victims of human rights violations," Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said yesterday as the group saw through that Ret. Maj. Jovito Palparan Jr. is brought to Bulacan Provincial Jail from the court hearing at the Malolos Regional Trial Court.
Holding photos of Palparan’s victims—those killed and abducted, and remain missing—rallyists hounded Palparan as they saw him coming down from the courtroom. Palparan was brought to the Bulacan Provincial Jail after the court denied his motion to stay at the headquarters of the National Bureau of Investigation.
"This should be a warning to the Palparans among the ranking officials of the military and those who profess admiration for “The Butcher”—that those who violated the people’s rights will have to pay for their crimes. The people and their victims will make sure of that," Palabay said.
The victims and their relatives scored Palparan’s plea before Judge Teodora Gonzales not to commit him to Bulacan Provincial Jail because "I value my life."
“Buhay lang ba niya ang mahalaga? Ang buhay ba ng anak ko ay walang halaga kaya niya kinuha?" Mrs. Connie Empeno, mother of Karen, said tearfully.
“Palparan’s shameless audacity to talk about the value of life while taking away the lives of others, based on his own judgment, is odious. Alam niya pala ang salitang yun? Did that even occur to him when he victimized countless activists and civilians?” asked Palabay.
Palparan has a long list of victims; some of them were at yesterday’s protest action at the Malolos Regional Trial Court.
Scampering to protect their own
“Butchers and cowardly generals like Jovito Palparan Jr. deserve justice—the kind that is commensurate to the number of civilian lives he and his men took and toyed with while former President Arroyo and the military establishment were cheering him on. To play him up as the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ hero, to give him a minute longer to avoid prosecution, and then suggest to place him under military detention are all forms of travesty of justice. It encourages every person in uniform to do the same dirty deeds of Palparan,” Palabay said in reaction to statements of Sen. Antonio Trillanes and ISAFP Chief Eduardo Año on military security for Palparan.
Palabay said placing Palparan under military detention is a tactic being used by the AFP for its men to evade accountability. “These are essentially like back-to-barracks orders, similar to what the AFP did with Lt. Col. Alexis Bravo, Lt. Dante Jimenez and 14 other members of the Army’s 27th Infantry Battalion who were responsible for the 2012 massacre of anti-mining activist Juvy Capion and her two sons,” she added.
“The AFP’s protection of their own and their defense of the acts of butchers like Palparan as acts of duty are typical of the Philippine military, whose mercenary and fascist tradition and orientation breed generals like Palparan. They kill innocent civilians, massacre families, disappear suspected rebels, and sow terror in communities, in the name of counter-insurgency programs, which continue to happen under the Aquino government,” Palabay concluded.