DOJ summons Palparan on missing UP students

MANILA, Philippines - Retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan and others were summoned yesterday to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to answer criminal charges that they were involved in the alleged enforced disappearance of two University of the Philippines students five years ago.

The mothers of students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño accused Palparan and the others of arbitrary detention, serious physical injuries, maltreatment of prisoners, grave threats, grave coercion and rape.

“While the abduction of Sherlyn and Karen were carried out by the unnamed elements of the 56th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, it was clearly established that they were detained under the custody of the 24th Infantry Battalion and were tortured and raped by and under the knowledge and order of [Caiagas and Hilario],” read the complaint.

Palparan was ordered to submit a counter-affidavit.

The DOJ also summoned eight witnesses, including brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo to the first hearing.

Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera was joined in the investigating panel by Assistant State Prosecutors Irwin Maraya and Ethel Rea Suril.

Named respondents with Palparan were Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac (commanding officer of the 56th Infantry Battalion), Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado (commanding officer of the 25th Infantry Battalion), 2Lt. Francis Mirabelle Samson, Arnel Enriquez, M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario, and other unidentified persons.

Palparan and the others were also accused of violating Republic Act 7438, which defines the rights of persons under arrest and detention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention Against Torture, and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Complainants submitted to the DOJ eight affidavits of witnesses who either saw the abduction or were detained with Cadapan and Empeño at the 56th IB headquarters in Barangay Iba in Hagonoy, Bulacan.

One of the accounts cited was from Oscar Leuterio, who was kidnapped in April 2006 and supposedly tortured and detained for five months at the headquarters of the 7th Infantry Division in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija.

He said he saw two women fitting the description of Sherlyn and Karen in the camp.

The mothers of the students also cited the eyewitness account of Raymond, a farmer who himself was snatched by the military and testified in the writs of amparo and habeas corpus cases in the Court of Appeals in 2008.

He had witnessed several men abusing the students, including the use of water torture and electric shocks on Cadapan, he added.

He also said he had seen Manuel Merino, who was also snatched with the two students, being burned to death.

Manalo also told the court that Sherlyn admitted to him that she was raped by three men while in detention.

The custodians “touched and inserted a wooden object in the private parts” of Sherlyn and Karen, he added. – With Paolo Romero, Alexis Romero