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REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINESHOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Quezon City, Metro Manila

FIFTEENTH CONGRESSSecond Regular Session

House Resolution No.055Introduced by Kabataan Partylist Representative RAYM OND V. PALA TINORESOLUTIONEN JOIN IN G A LL M EM B ER S OF TH E H OU SE OF R EPR ESEN TA TIVES TO SU PPO R TAND PARTICIPATE IN STATE AND CITIZEN EFFORTS TO BRING TO JUSTICERETIRED ARMY MAJOR GENERAL JOVITO PALPARAN JR. IN THE INTEREST OFUPHOLDING HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW

WHEREAS, on Decem ber 19, 2011, Judge Teodora Gonzales of Bulacan RegionalTrial Cou rt Branch 14 issued a warrant for the arrest of retired Major Gene ral Jovito PalparanJr. and three other mil itary off icers, who are charged for the disappearance of University ofthe Phi l ippines students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan in 2006;

WHEREAS, the warrant penn ed by Judge G onzales read: "Any officer of the law... [ is]hereby co mm anded to arrest M/Ge n. Jovito S. Palparan Jr... who stand s before this Court forthe cr ime of Violat ion of Art icle 267 of the Re vised Penal Code as A mended by RA 7659 andto br ing him/her before me as soon as possible to be de alt with in accordance with law." Thetrial court did not recommend bail for any of the four accused as the law states that thecrimes of kidnapping and serious i l legal detention are non-bailable offenses;

WHEREAS, apart from Palparan, also ordered arrested were L t. Col. Felipe AnotadoJr., S/Sgt Edgardo O sorio, and M/Sg t. Rizal Hilario;

WHEREAS, prior to the issuance of the arrest war rant, the Departmen t of Just ice(DOJ) had earlier recommended in a 35-page resolution the indictment of Palparan for twocounts of kidnap ping and serious i l legal detention in conn ection with the abdu ction of the sti llmissing UP students. The DOJ resolut ion read: The panel concluded that the kidnappingand serious i l legal detent ion of She rlyn and Karen w ere done by Ph ilippine Army o fficers,enlisted personnel and other unindicted co-conspirators, who committed the acts not inrelation to their off ice but in violat ion of ' their sacred du ty of protect ing the pe ople' and byacting 'outside their oaths of office, thereby acting as if they are private individuals";

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WHEREAS, on June 26, 2006, Karen, Sheriyn and farmer Manuel Merino wereabducted by arm ed me n from a house in San M iguel, Hagono y, Bulacan. During that t ime,Palparan was the comm anding general of the Arm y's 7thy Infantry Division wh ose missionwas to cond uct sustained Internal Security Operations in Central Luzon to neu tralize the NewPeople's Army. The UP students, who were then conducting research on the plight ofBulacan farmers, were tagged by men in uniform as members of the armed communistgroup;

WHEREAS, the complaints against Palparan et al. were filed by the students'mo thers, Erl inda C adapan an d Con cepcion E mp eno, wh o later f i led pet i t ions for a writ ofhabeas corpus at the Court of Appea ls and a wri t of amparo at the Suprem e Court JusticeSecretary Le ila De Lima formed the prel iminary invest igat ion pan el in June 2011 after theDOJ was tasked by both courts in May to investigate the case;

WHEREAS, in finding probable c ause to indict Palparan et al., the DOJ use d as basisthe testimony of farmer Raymond Manalo, who testified during the habeas corpusprocee dings at the Court of Appeals in 2008 and po sitively identified several of the abduc torsand torturers. The D OJ said that "Palparan had a direct hand in the detention of She rlyn andKaren and that through his men, he had knowledge and control of the places where thewomen w ere held";

WHEREAS, Palparan, who remains at large up to this day, went into hiding after thearrest warrant was issued by the Bulacan Re gional Trial Court Branch 14. Prior to the releaseof the arrest warrant, the retired major general and form er representative of Ban tay Party-l istin the 14th Congre ss had attempted to f lee the coun try but was prevented by immigrat ionofficials a strong indication of gu ilt as he tried to esca pe on the day tha t his case is to beraffled;

WHEREAS, upon the directives of the DOJ Secretary, the National Bureau ofInvestigation, in coordination with the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation andDetection Group, are currently conducting manhun t operations against Palparan and his co-accused, Hilario, while Anotado and Osorio had voluntarily surrendered. A bounty ofP1,000,000 has been put up by the government for the capture of Palparan and for anyonewho can provide information leading to the arrest of the retired major ge neral;

WH ER EA S, Malacanang i tself has urged Palparan, who , according to PresidentialSpokesperson Edwin Lacierda, is 'formerly so bold and brazen and lavishly coddled by theformer adm inistrat ion", to immed iately surrende r and face the charges of kidnapping andserious i llegal detention. Defense S ecretary Voltaire Gazmin has also cal led on the formermilitary official to surrend er to autho rities;

WHEREAS, aside from the manhunt operations by police and other state forces,

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sectoral groups, human rights advocates and UP students and alumni have launched a"people's manhunt" against Palparan to give justice to Karen and Sherlyn, who haveremained missing since their disappearance five years ago. Among the efforts launched byprivate individuals and groups include putting up "Wanted Palparan" posters in variousplaces, coordinating with local police, etc.;

WHEREAS, bringing Palparan to just ice for the Cadap an and E mpen o kidnappingwill be a big step toward attaining justice, not only for the two missing UP students, but alsofor the thousands who disappeared and who were killed through extrajudicial killingsallegedly in the hands of uniformed men and other off ic ial agents of the law. Hum an r ightsgroups have recorded m ore than 700 incidents of human rights violat ions in less than twoyears that Palparan was assigned to the region during Gloria Arroyo's all-out counter-insurgency program O plan Bantay Laya;

WHEREAS, in compliance with the constitutional provision stating that it isgovernmen t pol icy to value the dignity of every h uman person and guarantee ful l respect forhuman r ights and in upholding the commitment to democracy as stated in Republ ic Act No.6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees,members of the House of Representatives can do their share in the state and people'scampaign to m ake accoun table violators of human rights;

WHEREAS, given the vast and strong presenc e of district representatives at the locallevel and the national character of the party-l ist, the du ly elected representatives of the peoplecan u t i lize the resou rces at their disposal to sup port and assist state forces in f inding andarresting the fugitive Palparan;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED , to enjoin allme mbe rs of the House o f Represen tat ives to supp ort and part icipate in state and citizenefforts to bring to justice retired Army Major Jovito Palparan Jr. in the interest of upholdinghuman rights and the rule of law.

Adopted,

HON. RA GND V. PALA TINORep ress ive, Kab ataan Partyl ist

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