Palace asks for public help to locate Palparan

Monday, January 9, 2012

MALACANANG on Monday urged the public to help authorities in locating fugitive Jovito Palparan, who is wanted for kidnapping and serious illegal detention.

He was implicated, along with three other military officers, in the disappearance of University of the Philippines student activists Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in 2006.

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Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said it would be easier for the police to arrest Palparan if the public will also give tips about the retired Army major general's whereabouts.

"It will be easier if the public also helps. As you know we have limited manpower who is employed in the search for the obviously missing former general Palparan and it would help if the public would give us information if there have been any sightings of the former general," Valte said.

She said the government was assured by the military that Palparan was not getting help from his former colleagues for his continuous hiding.

"The AFP has spoken, Colonel (Arnulfo) Burgos said it is not a policy of the Armed Forces to help fugitives," she noted.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) last Friday launched an operation in Nueva Ecija to capture Palparan but to no avail. The arresting team claimed that Palparan was supposedly being coddled by his friends in the military.

For its part, the National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL) challenged the government to step up even more the manhunt and bring Palparan before the bar of justice.

"He cannot possibly hide and run ‘til kingdom come," NUPL secretary-general Edre Olalia, one of the case's private prosecutors, said.

Valte refused to comment whether the hunt for Palparan is a priority of the Aquino administration given the other problems the administration is facing.

Palparan remains in hiding since the Malolos Regional Trial Court issued arrest warrants against him and three other military officers on December 19, 2011.

The government has recently increased the P500,000 bounty on Palparan's head to P1 million. (Jill Beltran/with Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)