A court in Bulacan found retired Maj Gen Jovito Palparan and others not guilty of the multiple charges of kidnapping, serious illegal detention and serious physical injuries filed by two farmers.
The decision of the Malolos City Regional Trial Court Branch 19, Friday, was handed down about the earlier complaint filed by farmers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo.
It will be remembered that it was 10 years ago after the Manalo brothers filed the case against Palparan, which was controversial due to the violation of the rights of activists and progressives during the time of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The Manalos were accompanied by their lawyers from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) and the parents of the abducted young actress Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño.
It can be recalled that Palparan — former commander of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division in Central Luzon — was found guilty of kidnapping UP students Cadapan and Empeño back in 2006.
Raymond Manalo’s testimony was first used to ensure the “guilty” verdict in the abduction of Karen and Sherlyn. Raymond is said to have survived 18 months of military torture.
Palparan is known to be anti-communist and has a long history of red-tagging against legal activists.
It was previously reported that the two Manalos were abducted in February 2006 from their farm in San Ildefonso, Bulacan.
Palparan acquitted of kidnapping, assault of 2 farmers in Bulacan
They were allegedly tied up and blindfolded before being put into the back of an L300. Palparan’s group also complains about the beating they received before arriving from Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija.
Such injuries are said to be why Reynaldo confessed to the alleged killing of 10 Philippine National Police personnel.
NUPL chairperson Edre Olalia, who is also part of the private prosecution team, is disappointed with the decision handed down by the Malolos RTC.
“Simply unbelievable if not disturbingly shocking,” Olalia said in a statement.
“It would be tremendously difficult to explain to the Manalo brothers, the parents of still missing Karen and Sherryl and countless others he had redtagged and victimized how they cannot seek legal redress despite the ‘credible, categorical and convincing’ accounts that even the appellate courts have previously established.”
“It is even a huge challenge to make sense of how he can be earlier convicted mainly on the basis of the testimony of the same witness survivor by one court and years later would be acquitted on the same testimony in a separate case brought by the same said witness survivor in another court.”
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