Human Rights Online Philippines

Hunt on for Palparan.
Notorious general goes into hiding
Philippine Daily Inquirer

The tables have been turned: The hunter is now the hunted.

Two days after Jovito Palparan Jr. was stopped at an airport in Pampanga province  from leaving the country, the government launched a manhunt for the retired major general tagged by activist groups as “Berdugo (Butcher)” for the string of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances attributed to him.

A task force has been formed solely to find, arrest and detain Palparan since his foiled attempt to leave for Singapore on Monday, President Benigno Aquino III’s spokesperson, Edwin Lacierda, said Wednesday.

Formed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, the task force is made up of members of the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation, Lacierda said.

The mother of one of two University of the Philippines students abducted in 2006 said that Palparan was “a coward” and that “we will search you out.”

In a statement issued by his office, Lacierda called on Palparan to stop hiding and surrender to authorities: “Come out, come out wherever you are.”

He said the man “formerly so bold and brazen, and lavishly coddled by the former administration, is now a fugitive from justice.”

Read full article @ newsinfo.inquirer.net

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