ANGELES CITY – A militant group warned yesterday that fugitive retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan is “armed and dangerous” and urged Pres. Aquino to set a deadline for his capture amid the possibility that he is being coddled by some supporters in the military.
In a statement, the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), some of whose members were alleged victims of Palparan, said “relatives of Palparan’s counter-insurgency exploits and the Filipino public are getting impatient with the slow action of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).”
“Mr. Palparan is not only a certified fugitive from justice. He is armed and dangerous and is known for his business of killing political activists and innocent people in the name of national security doctrine and his crazy anti-communist advocacy,” said the Pamalakaya statement.
Pamalakaya National Chairperson Fernando Hicap stressed that “the general public is not safe with this heartless and ruthless criminal on the loose’”
He urged the President to direct law enforcement agencies to impose a one-week deadline for Palparan’s capture.
“Malacañang with all its personnel resources and intelligence funds can capture Palparan even in less than a week,” he said.
Hicap said some members of the police and military who could be sympathetic to Palparan might actually know where the fugitive general has been in hiding.
“The ‘butcher’ is their own creation and these reactionary institutions have cherished Palparan’s political killing spree since his integration in the military,” he added.
Hicap said some members of the military have continued to regard Palparan as hero. “Therefore, there is a strong possibility that Palparan’s connections with the AFP is in the work and his military backers are probably coddling him at this very moment.”
NBI-Central Luzon director Ricardo Diaz was quoted to have said that Palparan was supposed to surrender on Friday but this did not push through.
Palparan, together with Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado, S/Sgt . Edgardo Osorio and M/Sgt . Rizal Hilario were charged with kidnapping University of the Philippines student activists Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in Hagonoy, Bulacan, in June 2006, or three months before Palparan retired as commander of the 7th Infantry Division in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija province.
In 2008, Pamalakaya filed a P 25-million libel case against Palparan before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court but the case was dismissed due to the court’s lack of jurisdiction.
The court said the case should have been filed in Tarlac City where the Northern Luzon Command, the mother unit of Palparan’s infantry division was based.
Pamalakaya said Palparan singled out the fisherfolk group as a machinery of the New People’s Army in collecting monthly P 50,000 worth of revolutionary tax from every fishpond operator and were recruiting residents to join the New People’s Army.
Pamalakaya denied Palparan’s allegations.
