SENADO 2016, sino nga ba?

It seems as if Jovito Palparan, Jr. -- a retired solider, a former Congressman, a 3-year fugitive, and enemy number one of the local insurgency – is looking to further lengthen his very controversial resume.

 

      He now hopes to make the cut as a senator in the upcoming national elections.

 

      A lot of people do not know what to make of this, as Palparan, Jr. possesses a track record that does not exactly fit the canon for Senate hopefuls. His includes two cases of kidnapping and serious detention of two UP students, for which he was arrested and now detained.

 

      Prior to being arrested, the Aquino government put a 2-million-peso bounty on his capture. However, Aquino’s predecessor seemed to think of the man differently, as former President Gloria Arroyo commended Palparan, Jr. in her 2006 State of the Nation Address. For activists, on the other hand, he has always been ‘The Butcher’ as human rights groups assail him for multiple incidents of human rights violations while a commander in the army.

 

Entry point

 

      To say that he is a confusing character is to say the least about Palparan. However, he was not always the divisive public figure that he is now:

 

      In Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental on September 11, 1950, Jovito Palparan, Jr. was born to Jovito Palparan, Sr and Teofila Salvana. He was second to five siblings, and spent most of his formative years in the province. He went to a Catholic high school in Cagayan de Oro, where it is said that his peers looked down on him for being quiet and timid.

 

      All of that was about to change.

 

      When he decided to earn his bachelor’s degree from the University of the East in Manila, he found his real calling – but it was not in the Business Administration course he was taking. He was said to have found his niche amongst the fatigue uniforms and cadence marching that symbolized the then-required Reserve Officer Training Course (ROTC). He graduated in 1971.

     

      Shortly after graduation, he had a brief stint working as a clerk for a financial institution, but was said to have preferred the excitement of his collegiate ROTC training days. So he went on to sign up for the actual thing – active duty in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He was commissioned in 1973.

 

      His first assignment as a lieutenant was in Basilan and Sulu. He has since led a number of military units all over the country and was awarded numerous military distinction awards such as the Gold Cross Medal, Gawad sa Kaunlaran, Bronze Cross, and a couple of Military Merit Medals.

By the time he retired in 2006, he was already a major general.

 

Notoriety

 

      It must be true that power corrupts.

 

      His 33 years of service in the military earned him a lot of distinctions and praises, but it was also when he earned the monicker ‘The Butcher.’ Palparan is linked to numerous complaints of human rights violations such as torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and murder. He has been very vocal about his anti-insurgency stand; he even owns up to reducing the number of both communist and Muslim rebels. The human rights abuses, however, comprise a different narrative.

 

      In 2011, Palparan claimed he is to face all charges following his indictment in for the enforced disappearance of Karen Empeno and Sherly Cadapan, two UP students. Following his claim, however, he was caught trying to leave the country before successfully running away from the clutches of justice.

 

      He was in hiding for three years prior to falling to the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila, where he is reported not to have resisted arrest. Human rights activists, including Karapatan and the mothers of Karen and Sherly trooped to the bureau to call for justice and against special treatment of the notorious ex-soldier.

 

      Palparan continues to deny he was behind the disappearance of the two students.

 

       "Hindi po totoo iyan. Ang sa akin lang, sana maging truthful din sila dahil ang dami nilang manufactured na evidence,” Palparan tells ABS-CBN News in an interview on August 12, 2014, the same day he was arrested.

 

Nowhere near done

 

      Before anyone could say ‘justice,’ however, Palparan once again shocks the nation, this time by expressing intent to run for Senate. His counsel moved his papers around for him, transferring his official residence in documents from Pasig to Taguig.

 

     Since Palparan is not yet convicted of anything, his senatorial bid is in accordance with his constitutional rights. Rights group Karapatan tells Philippine Star, however, that the whole scene where a human rights violator could run for office marks the “height of impunity.”

 

      There is nothing heard about his platforms or stance in national issues, but if we could take hints from his stint in the House of Representatives as the representative of The True Marcos Loyalist (For God, Country and People) Association of the Philippines, or Bantay party-list as they were called, there is every likelihood that he will continue being a hardliner against the communist insurgency.

 

      Good news for the 3% that voted for him in the latest BusinessWorld-Social Weather Stations election survey.  ###