Timeline: Palparan's alleged involvement in disappearance of UP students

MANILA, Philippines - June 26, 2006 Two University of the Philippines (UP) students, Karen Empeo and Sherlyn Cadapan, and farmer Manuel Merino disappeared in Hagonoy, Bulacan. They are snatched by masked gunmen before dawn, blindfolded, and forced to board a passenger jeepney in Hagonoy town at gunpoint. Empeo is a sociology major doing research in farming communities in Hagonoy for her graduate thesis while Cadapan, who was pregnant, is a former UP student council officer who works as a researcher for a farmer’s group in Bulacan.

July 17, 2006 The families of the two missing UP students filed a petition for habeas corpus before the Court against then Generals Romeo Tolentino and Jovito Palparan and other officers of the Northern Luzon Command. 

July 19, 2006 The Supreme Court (SC) orders four military officials – Tolentino, Palparan, Lt. Col. Rogelio Boaca, a certain Lt. Samson – and Arnel Enriquez to present before the Court of Appeals (CA) the two female students of UP and their male companion. 

March 29, 2007  The CA dismisses the habeas corpus petition due to lack of “strong evidence that the missing persons are in the custody of the respondents.”

Oct. 24, 2007 Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeo, the mothers of the two missing students, seek assistance of the SC through the writ of amparo.

Sept. 17, 2008 The CA rules that the testimony of Raymond Manalo was “clear, consistent and convincing,” thus ordering the Armed Forces to produce the bodies of the two students and Merino. Manalo said he saw the two UP students and Merino detained by “some elements in the military.” 

May 4, 2011 The mothers of the two missing students filed a joint complaint with Department of Justice (DOJ) accusing Palparan and the other respondents of arbitrary detention, serious physical injuries, maltreatment of prisoners, grave threats, grave coercion, rape and other human rights violations. 

Aug. 19, 2011 Staff Sergeant Edgardo Osorio, a former aide of Palparan, faces charges before the DOJ in the alleged enforced disappearance of the two missing UP students. 

Dec. 15, 2011 The DOJ finds probable cause to indict Palparan in the kidnapping of the two UP students. The two UP students are still missing up to this time while Merino was burned to death sometime in June 2007, according to the eyewitness Manalo.    Source: STAR archives, SC website Compiled by: Charmie Joy Pagulong