Fugitive Philippine general arrested after two-year manhunt

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crimeA former Philippine army general accused of being behind the disappearances of leftist activists eight years ago was arrested Tuesday after more than two years in hiding, officials said.

Former major general Jovito Palparan was apprehended before dawn in a house in a Manila district, where he was found by a team of military intelligence and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents.

“We received a tip that he was in the area on Sunday,” said Rommel Vallejo, head of NBI’s anti-organized and transnational crime. “We found him sleeping.”

Palparan, one of the most wanted men in the Philippines, had been a fugitive since a court ordered his arrest in December 2011 on kidnapping charges for the disappearance of two student activists in 2006.

The students, Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan, are still missing and are feared to have been killed.

Palparan, who denies the charges against him, was the commanding officer of an army battalion at the time of the disappearances. He later became a congressman, representing an anti-communist grouping called Bantay.

Pictures from the arrest showed Palparan with long hair and a beard, and he had apparently lost weight.

Palparan said he was “relieved” that he had been arrested and that he went into hiding to ensure his safety from alleged threats from communist rebels.

“I don’t want to die in the hands of the enemy,” he told a Manila radio station after his capture. “That would be a big advantage to the communist movement.”

“I am confident that if the court is impartial, I can win the case. But my family was concerned about my security. My children believed that if I was arrested, I will be helpless and killed soon,” he said.

The families and colleagues of Empeno and Cadapan hailed the arrest of Palparan, nicknamed “the butcher” for his alleged treatment of leftist activists during the administration of former president Gloria Arroyo.

“But we are also not happy because we have yet to see our daughters Karen and Sherlyn,” said Linda Cadapan. “Justice is yet to be served, too, for other victims of enforced disappearances.”

“We call on all the victims and kin of Palparan to come out and file charges against him in court,” human rights group Karapatan said, accusing him of being involved in the deaths of dozens more people. “He should not get away from his sins to the Filipino people.”

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the military and the NBI’s “steadfast doggedness” had led to the arrest of Palparan, who had a 46,500-dollar bounty on his head.

“President (Benigno) Aquino promised that those who evade the law will be found,” he said. “That promise to capture General Palparan has been fulfilled today.”
GNA
PDC

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