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DRILON SAYS RETIRED ARMY GENERAL’S TRIAL GOOD FOR RP HUMAN RIGHTS IMAGE ABROAD

Binay dares Malacañang: Order arrest of Palparan

10/14/2008

The United Opposition (UNO) yesterday dared President Arroyo to immediately file criminal charges and order the arrest of retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan to disprove allegations that her administration sanctioned the wave of extra-judicial killings and disappearances of activists and government critics allegedly perpetrated by military death squads.

“The Arroyo administration should file charges and order the arrest of Palparan to show its adherence to the constitutional provisions of protecting human rights and the rule of law,” UNO president and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay said. “To keep silent on the matter would only confirm the sentiment of local and international human rights observers that her administration condones such practices,” he added.

Binay issued the challenge after the Supreme Court (SC) decision upheld the findings of the Court of Appeals (CA) last week linking Palparan to the abduction of brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, both farmers in Bulacan province who were taken under military custody for 18 months on suspicion of being communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels until they escaped in August last year.

The SC said it found “convincing” one of the brothers’ accounts of how they were tortured by their military captors. Raymond said in his account that during their captivity at an Army camp in Limay, Bataan, he saw another detainee, Manuel Merino, being “set on fire” by their captors and that he later heard Merino’s “screams or moans.”

UNO spokesman lawyer Adel Tamano said even without waiting for President Arroyo’s directive, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez should immediately file criminal charges against Palparan unless Malacañang intended to protect the retired Army general and whitewash the case.

Tamano also suggested that a hold-departure order be issued on Palparan to prevent him from fleeing the country.

“To show this administration’s adherence to the rule of law and respect for human rights, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez should file criminal charges against General Palparan and all military officers involved in the torture and abduction of the Manolo brothers,” Tamano said. “Additionally, President Arroyo or Secretary Gonzalez should subsequently move for the issuance of a hold departure order issued against Palparan to prevent his fleeing the country ala Joc-joc Bolante.”

But, given that track record of the Arroyo administration in punishing human right violators within its ranks, Tamano said he was unsure if Malacañang would pick up the UNO suggestion. “I would not hold my breath through waiting for all these to happen,” he said.

For his part, UNO National Capital Region chairman and San Juan Mayor Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said the filing of criminal charges should not limited to Palparan.

“Considering that majority of the victims of extra-judicial killings and disappearances were taken to military camps, the government should not single out only Palparan and investigate all military officers involved,” Ejercito said.

“With the Supreme Court ruling, we hope that the majority members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines who remained committed to human rights and the rule of law would do something to give justice to the so-called ‘desaparecidos’ of the Arroyo administration’s extra-judicial killings,” Ejercito added.

In its ruling, the SC upheld the appellate court’s findings in 2007 that “Palparan’s participation in the abduction (of the brothers) was… established.”

The endorsement of the appellate court’s findings was part of the high tribunal’s ruling released last week, which upheld the latter’s grant of the writ of amparo to the Manalos. The brothers had sought the writ as protection from government harassment.

The SC also supported the ruling of the CA linking volunteers of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) to the brothers’ abduction.

“We affirm the factual finding of the appellate court largely based on respondent Raymond Manalo’s affidavit and testimony,” read the SC decision penned by Chief Justice Reynato Puno.

The SC dismissed as “very limited, superficial and one-sided” the investigation and testimony of Lt. Col. Ruben Jimenez, the provost marshall of the 7th Infantry Division. It was Jimenez who took the statements of the CAFGU members denying the Manalos’ allegation.

The SC rejected the claim of Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and then Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. that Raymond’s statements were baseless. Raymond, in his testimony, said Palparan had told them during their detention in a compound in San Miguel, Bulacan that in exchange for their lives, they must tell their parents to stop attending rallies and to stop going to the human rights group Karapatan and to the Commission on Human Rights.

Meanwhile, former Senate President and Liberal Party (LP) national chairman Franklin Drilon yesterday challenged Malacañang to initiate criminal charges and order the immediate arrest former Palparan to lend credibility to its campaign before the international community that government was not behind the wave of extra-judicial killings of activists and government-critics.

Drilon, also a former Justice secretary, said the filing of charges and the holding of a fair trial for Palparan for alleged human rights violations would show the international community that the Arroyo administration remained committed to the protection of human rights and the rule of law.

“A fair and credible trial of General Palparan would show the international community that the Arroyo administration did not and will not condone human rights violations,” Drilon said. “This Supreme Court decision provides a good opportunity for this government to show that it was not behind the wave of extra-judicial killings, abductions and torture of government critics several months ago.”

Drilon pointed to the SC decision last week upholding the findings of the CA linking Palaparan to the abduction of Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, two brothers from Bulacan who were taken under military custody for 18 months on suspicion of being communist rebels until they escaped in August last year.

Drilon noted that the Department of Foreign Affairs has been busy with a campaign to prop up the image of Arroyo administration before the international community for its poor record in defending and protecting human rights.

In June this year, Drilon added, the DFA declared its “success” in defending the country’s human rights record before the United Nations Universal Periodic Review in Geneva.

But Drilon said all the efforts of the DFA to promote human rights record of the Arroyo government abroad would go for naught if it failed to act on the findings of the SC on the Manalo case.

He said that if Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez did not have the inclination nor the courage to file charges against Palaparan, it should ask the Commission on Human Rights to take the lead in the case.