KARAPATAN and Desaparecidos expressed support for the manifestation and motion filed at the Supreme Court by Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño calling on the Court to direct the Bureau of Corrections (Bucor) to disclose the whereabouts of convicted former Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.
The complainants, who are the mothers of disappeared activists Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, filed their complaint after receiving information that Palparan was no longer incarcerated at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City where he is serving a life sentence without possibility of parole. Sherlyn and Karen were abducted in Hagonoy, Bulacan on June 26, 2006 by forces under Palparan’s command and remain missing to date. This is the 20th year since the abduction of the two UP students.
Palparan, who was convicted in September 2018 for the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of Sherlyn and Karen, has a pending appeal before the Supreme Court after his conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals in May 2022. The complainants came to know that Palparan was no longer at the NBP after notices to him returned unserved and with the annotations “moved out (transferred to Bucor-Baguio) and “moved out to PMA Baguio.”
Meanwhile, at the NBP, the official line is that Palparan has been brought to hospital.
“The varied answers raise renewed suspicions of special treatment for Palparan,” said Desaparecidos spokesperson JL Burgos. “In 2022, under the Duterte regime, the Bucor allowed the SMNI to interview Palparan in prison, where he continued to red-tag Sherlyn and Karen and justify their abduction. Palparan was also confined at the Minimum Security Compound of the NBP instead of the Maximum Security Compound where those convicted of heinous crimes should be held.”
“This latest news is even worse about Palparan reportedly being at the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio, which is neither a Bucor facility nor a hospital,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay. “If he had indeed been brought there, we demand the Bu Cor’s explanation. We also demand that he be recommitted to the NBP Maximum Security Compound where he should be,” stressed Palabay. “There must be no special treatment for the butcher Palparan.”