[In the news] NBI: Palparan no-show – INQUIRER.net

NBI: Palparan no-show. Bureau waited for surrender of ‘Butcher’ By Tonette Orejas Inquirer Central Luzon CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Expectations of retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. surrendering to authorities were dashed late Friday afternoon, with still no sign of the fugitive. At 5:33 p.m., Ricardo Diaz, director of the National Bureau of Investigation office in…

Human Rights Online Philippines

December 24, 2011

1–2 minutes

Bulacan, Camp Crame, Central Luzon, Fort Magsaysay, Jovito Palparan, National Bureau of Investigation, Nueva Ecija, Philippine

NBI: Palparan no-show.

Bureau waited for surrender of ‘Butcher’
By Tonette Orejas
Inquirer Central Luzon

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Expectations of retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. surrendering to authorities were dashed late Friday afternoon, with still no sign of the fugitive.

At 5:33 p.m., Ricardo Diaz, director of the National Bureau of Investigation office in Central Luzon, said: “For reasons unknown to us the alleged plan to give himself up did not materialize. Manhunt continues.”

Only half an hour earlier, Diaz said there was still “a possibility” that Palparan, tagged “Berdugo” (Butcher) by activist groups for his alleged link to extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, would surrender Friday. “We are on standby just in case,” he said.

Diaz alerted the Inquirer to Palparan’s supposed planned surrender at 10 a.m. Friday but provided no details as to how the NBI was contacted.

The retired major general and three others are charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention. Kidnapping is a nonbailable offense.

Two of the others charged, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado and S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio, are now in police custody in Camp Crame, Quezon City. But Palparan and the fourth charged, M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario, have eluded arrest since Monday, when warrants for their arrest were issued by Judge Teodora Gonzales of Regional Trial Court Branch 14 in Malolos, Bulacan province.

The case stemmed from the abduction of University of the Philippines student activists Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in Hagonoy, Bulacan, in June 2006, or three months before Palparan retired as commander of the 7th Infantry Division in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija province.

Cadapan and Empeño have not been seen by their families since then.

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