by Ronalyn V. Olea, Bulatlat.com

MANILA – A close-in security of retired Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. has been identified by one of the witnesses as one of those who abducted University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño and farmer Manuel Merino.

In a supplemental affidavit submitted to the Department of Justice (DOJ) panel, August 3, Wilfredo Ramos said the man who was wearing a blue shirt and shades and seated immediately at the back of Palparan during the last hearing on July 19 was part of the team that took Cadapan, Empeño and Merino from their house in San Miguel, Hagonoy, Bulacan on June 26, 2006.

During the third hearing of the preliminary investigation on the criminal charges filed against Palparan and other military officials, Provost Marshal General Col. Herbert Yambing admitted to the DOJ panel that the man being referred to by Ramos is a member of the Philippine Army and is assigned to provide security for Palparan during court hearings. Yambing, however, said he does not know the name of the soldier. A photograph of the soldier is attached to the supplemental affidavit.

Asked what unit is providing security for Palparan, Yambing responded it is the AFP’s Headquarters Service Group.

Palparan was not present in the recent hearing and so was his aide.

DOJ panel head Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera ordered Yambing to produce the personal circumstances of Palparan’s aide and to coordinate with the lawyers of the complainants.

Lawyer Edre Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), said the still unnamed soldier is among the “John Does” in the complaint filed by the mothers of the two missing UP students.

In May, Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño, mothers of the two UP students, filed the criminal complaint against Palparan and other retired and active military officials for arbitrary detention, maltreatment of prisoners, grave threats, and grave coercion, rape, and serious physical injuries.

In his affidavit, Ramos who was only 14 years old at the time of the incident, said the said soldier was the one who hogtied him and his father William Ramos on June 26, 2006. During the July 19 hearing, Ramos said the man gave him a dagger look.

In the July 19 hearing, Olalia asked the DOJ panel to allow Ramos to point at and ask the identity of one of the abductors. Navera denied the motion, saying it is not an evidence-gathering party.

Olalia said the presence of one of the abductors during the last hearing was “the height of brazenness and arrogance.” “One of the alleged but still unnamed perpetrators had the gall and temerity to go to the hearing and display himself, intimidating and eyeing Ramos all throughout the hearing. He was openly thumbing his nose, as it were, at the whole justice system,” Olalia said.

‘Palparan responsible’

In their joint reply affidavit, Mrs. Cadapan and Mrs. Empeño said Palparan’s counter-affidavit contains merely bare and general denials.

“Palparan’s self-righteous indignation and refutation of the charges cannot exempt him from criminal liability for the cruel treatment of Karen and Sherlyn while in custody,” they said.

They added that the fact that Karen and Sherlyn were being transferred from one military camp to another under the command of different military units but all under the 7th Infantry Division establishes conspiracy among the respondent and connivance of the whole military establishment under the 7th ID.

The mothers of the two missing UP students also said mere suspicion of being New People’s Army (NPA) members does not justify extra legal abduction, forced disappearance and violation of the rights of Sherlyn and Karen.

The two mothers also belied claims by other respondents Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac, Col. Felipe Anotado, M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario and 2nd Lt. Francis Mirabelle Samson.

In a statement, key witness Raymond Manalo said, “For a number of times, our statements have been proven true by the Courts. They could no longer hide the truth so they just deny it, and try to destroy our credibility.”

Wrong person

Lawyers of the complainants also manifested that the respondent Arnel E. Enriquez who appeared in court hearings was not among those who abducted the students.

Another witness Alberto Ramirez said Enriquez was not the same “Arnel Enriquez” who took part in the abduction.Lawyers asked for the removal of Enriquez in the complaint but insisted that a certain alias Arnel Enriquez be retained as one of the respondents. (http://bulatlat.com)

By Satur C. Ocampo
At Ground Level | The Philippine Star

“In 2006 and 2007, when the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and several other major donors publicly raised their concerns over the politically motivated killings under then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the number of killings dropped drastically. Under President Aquino, though, it is international pressure that has dropped, while the killings continue.”

Human Rights Watch

Such is the pointed reminder to President Aquino a rebuke, actually from an international human rights monitoring organization as he prepares to deliver his second state-of-the-nation address on Monday.

And there are similar reminders, rebukes, and appeals from various groups within the country. All urge the President to decisively resolve the issues of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations attributed to state security forces in pursuance of internal security policies and programs.

Under P-Noy’s watch, the human-rights alliance Karapatan has documented 48 extrajudicial killings and six enforced disappearances. None of these have been solved, contrary to Mr. Aquino’s claim in his first SONA that three political murder cases had been solved of the six recorded then.

Human Rights Watch’s 98-page report, titled “No Justice Just Adds to the Pain: Killings, Disappearances, and Impunity in the Philippines,” details some of these cases through 80 interviews with victims, their families, and witnesses in 11 provinces and with PNP and AFP officials. A former soldier narrates how military commanders trained and ordered him and other soldiers to kill leftist activists, hide or burn their bodies, intimidate witnesses, and make the killings appear like they were supposedly done by the New People’s Army’s “special partisan units.”

In the past decade only seven cases of extrajudicial killings were successfully prosecuted, with 12 defendants convicted, but HRW notes “none since P-Noy assumed office.” There has been no military member convicted, it adds, and no senior military officer convicted for direct involvement or as a matter of command responsibility.

Elaine Pearson, HRW-Asia deputy director, remarks: “Activists are being gunned down in the street, while implicated soldiers walk free. The Philippines can only bring an end to these horrific abuses if it is clear that anyone who orders or commits them will be jailed and their military careers will be over.”

Wasn’t this essentially what P-Noy said in a meeting with European ambassadors shortly before he was elected President? “Cases of extrajudicial killings need to be solved, not just identify the perpetrators but have them captured and sent to jail,” as quoted in this column last May 14.

Now P-Noy is pressed to make good on what he said then.

One challenge to him comes from Karapatan and Hustisya (an organization of victims and their families) which have initiated the filing of criminal charges against retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. and other military officers for the abduction and disappearance in 2006 of UP coeds Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno. In a press statement, the two groups were firm:

“Mr. President, you have to back up our initiatives, you have to stand up with us in our pursuit of justice and ensure that Palparan, et al., end up in jail. Equally important, you have to immediately put a stop to human rights violations under your administration and end impunity in this country.”

In Mindanao’s Caraga region, tribal, labor and human rights groups will hold mass rallies coinciding with Monday’s SONA to protest P-Noy’s “inaction” on the continued killings of tribal leaders and members of indigenous peoples “who refuse to cooperate with influential politicians who favor mining and logging interests.”

Monday will also be the final day of a three-day fast undergone by 354 political prisoners all over the country. They are calling attention to their demand to free all political prisoners, preferably through a presidential proclamation of a “general, omnibus and unconditional amnesty.”

Their amnesty demand is supported by several groups church formations, lawyers, progressive party-list representatives in Congress, as well as Karapatan, Hustisya, Selda (ex-political prisoners), and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.

It’s a just demand, deserving of public support. Why?

These are persons who were arrested, detained and imprisoned basically for acts in furtherance of their political beliefs. Long-established jurisprudence requires them to be treated differently from common criminal offenders. Yet they have been arbitrarily denied liberty and due process of law through “legal” schemes, such as charging them with common crimes (murder, kidnapping, arson, etc.), instead of rebellion or sedition. They are thus denied the right to bail, even as their cases take forever to be heard. They are stigmatized as plain criminals of the heinous kind rather than treated as political offenders.

Of the 354 political prisoners, 47 were arrested under P-Noy, 27 before Arroyo, and 280 under her. Most are victims of Arroyo’s “legal offensive” via the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group created in 2006. The IALAG has been abolished upon recommendation by UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, yet its malevolent effects continue to penalize its victims.

Justice demands rectification of these anomalies.

As his mother Cory Aquino saw the justness of granting general amnesty for the Marcos dictatorship’s political prisoners in 1986, can’t P-Noy do likewise for Arroyo’s and his own political prisoners?

E-mail to: satur.ocampo@gmail.com