Capture of Palparan does not end impunity in Phl

The arrest of Ret. Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan does not end impunity in the country and will not improve the human rights situation as long counter insurgency programs are used to quell people's dissent instead of addressing the root causes of the armed conflict. The machinery of the Armed Forces of the Philippines that perpetuates Palparan-style human rights violations against the Filipino people is very much active in implementing Oplan Bayanihan.

The AFP generals and commanders who have the same anti-communist stance as Palparan are in key positions and are calling the shots. They even lauded Palparan's campaign of terror against the so-called rebels that actually victimized unarmed civilians.

Gen. Eduardo Año, chief of the Intelligence Service of the AFP, who boasts of Palparan's arrest is also accountable for numerous violations such as the disappearance of agriculturist Jonas Burgos. Año continued Palparan's reign of terror in Central Luzon, after Palparan's stint in the region. Aquino glorifies Palparan's protégés like Gen. Año by promoting them to higher positions in the AFP, the same way Palparan was extolled by Gloria Arroyo then.

Gen. Año is the incoming commander of the 10th Infantry "Agila" Division in Davao Region. This poses more threat to the people of the Davao region, specifically Compostella Valley who are already faced with terror by intense counter-insurgency operations.

Palparan's pal, Gen. Ricardo Visaya, who is now the commander of the 4th ID in Northern Mindanao is as notorious as Palparan. He is accountable for the gross human rights violations in Hacienda Luisita, including the massacre in 2004 that killed farm workers who protested their P9 wage and devious land distribution scheme within the hacienda, and for the abduction and torture of farmers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo on February 14, 2006. Elements of the 69th IB-PA, then headed by Visaya, were involved.

We cite the case of University of the Philippines graduates Guiller Cadano and Gerald Salonga whom the police and military abducted and jailed on August 9. The illegal arrest, akin to that of the Morong 43 health workers jailed under the Arroyo regime, shows that the abductions and the filing of trumped up charges by the AFP continue. On July 27, 2014, hooded men abducted Benjie Gomez, who later ended up in jail for trumped up charges of murder. Gomez is a staff of Dinteg (Cordillera Indigenous People's Legal Center) for its project "Enhancing the Capacity of Indigenous Peoples on Human Rights-Based Approach to Development" funded by the European Union.

Extrajudicial killings continue. A week before Palparan was arrested, Hildegardo "Gil" Hernandez, a peasant organizer of Pagkakaisa ng Magsasaka at Tagapagtaguyod ng Ikalawang Distrito ng Quezon was shot in the afternoon of August 6 in a highway in Candelaria, Quezon province by a motorcycle-riding man. The killer came off from the motorcycle and shot Hernandez. Hernandez was already on the ground but the killer continued to shoot the victim. Hernandez died on the spot.

As of June 30, 2014, Karapatan has documented 204 victims of extrajudicial killings under the BS Aquino government. There are also 21 victims of enforced disappearances, 99 cases of torture, 664 illegal arrests and detention, and 39,800 victims of forced evacuation.

These rights violations perpetuated by the AFP and the Aquino government will not be covered up the arrest of Palparan, for there are other Palparans in the AFP.

Cristina Palabay

Secretary General

Karapatan