MANILA, Philippines - Authorities escorted Monday morning retired major general Jovito Palparan to Bulacan for his scheduled arraignment for the serious illegal detention and kidnapping charges before a local court.
Palparan was tightly guarded by police, military and National Bureau of Investigation agents as he was being ferried from the NBI compound in Manila to the bureau's office in Bulacan while waiting for the court to open.
The cases stemmed against the ex-army general from the disappearance of two University of the Philippines students Karen Empeno and Sheryln Cadapan in 2006.
After his arraignment, Palparan is expected to be detained at the Bulacan Provincial Jail while the cases are being heard by the court. His lawyers have opposed the transfer of detention of their client for security reasons.
Meanwhile, rights group Karapatan objected to the proposal of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV to have Palparan under military detention, saying it is a tactic used by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to evade accountability for the crimes of erring soldiers.
“These are essentially like back-to-barracks orders, similar to what the AFP did with Lt. Col. Alexis Bravo, Lt. Dante Jimenez and 14 other members of the Army’s 27th Infantry Battalion who were responsible for the 2012 massacre of anti-mining activist Juvy Capion and her two sons,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.