ANGELES CITY– Militants have coined a new term in their activist lexicon: Palparanism.
“We define Palparanism as an ultimate expression of state brutality and fascism,” said the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), following a statement of Philippine Army chief Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista that retired Major Gen. Jovito Palparan was the last of his kind in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Pamalakaya national chairperson Fernando Hicap said in a press statement, however, that Palparanism is “well entrenched and closely followed in the reactionary AFP” amid Bautista’s claim that the human rights performance of the AFP has vastly improved compared to the previous administrations.
The group noted that “since Aquino assumed office in 2010, there were 114 activists killed as a result of the continuing policy of extrajudicial killings, while close to 30,000 people had been displaced by military offensives in the countryside under the Oplan Bayanihan counter-insurgency program of the current government.”
“Palparanism remains the top political-military model for counter-insurgency program and the national security doctrine carried out by the Aquino administration patterned after the US COIN guide or the US Counter-Insurgency Guide,” Hicap said.
Palparan has been accused by militants of masterminding several cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of left-leaning activists. He was also tagged in the murders of human rights leader Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy in 2004 in Mindoro Oriental.
After retiring, he went into hiding after the Bulacan Regional Trial Court ordered his arrest for his alleged role in the case of two missing University of the Philippines students in 2006. He has remained at large.
Hicap said “the incorporation of a module on International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and respect for human rights in the training of AFP recruits will not work to stop state agents from violating basic freedom and human rights of the Filipino people.”
Pamalakaya said that apart from the killings, at least 12 activists were abducted by suspected members of the military, while 127 were illegally arrested based on fabricated charges during the Aquino administration.
