Jovito Palparan: We’ve got to hate the movement

Rappler.com

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Jovito Palparan: We’ve got to hate the movement
In a May 2006 interview with Newsbreak, Palparan speaks about his profession and his massive counter-insurgency campaign

MANILA, Philippines – Retired Major General Jovito Palparan evaded arrest in December 2011 after he was charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention. On Tuesday, August 12, he was finally found and captured after almost 3 years of hiding from authorities. (READ: General Palparan, ‘The Butcher,’ arrested in Manila)

Palparan became notorious in areas where he was assigned in Luzon, as he targeted the mass base of the communist New People’s Army that affected even civilians. (READ: TIMELINE: The search for Jovito Palparan)

Months before he retired in May 2006, Newsbreak published an interview with the major general. In that interview, he shared his thoughts about his profession and his counter-insurgency campaign.

On why he became a soldier

My father was a soldier. When I was in college, I didn’t like my course. The ROTC was a way of making my study a little bit comfortable.

On being called a butcher

It is a creation by my enemies, the enemies of the military. They want to create a picture of myself as a brutal criminal and a person who is…doing illegal things. Where I am assigned, people are getting better lives. We‘re improving the situation in areas that the AFP has liberated.

 

 

 

On the communist movement

 

“We’ve got to hate the movement. We’ve got to have that fighting stance. The movement should be eradicated. It should be eliminated.” 

 

 

  

– Jovito Palparan  

 

 

On his approach to ending the insurgency

We have an armed enemy that is not too big, but it is effective because it has an intelligence network which is providing the information against us. This is psychological warfare because this is a war for popular support.

On leftist activists and organizations as target of military operations

What a number of these legal organizations are doing is illegal. We have to act on the illegal activities of these groups. If these organizations basically act as conduits [of the NPA] then we will have to do it. I don’t know how. Up to now we are collecting information on members who are doing illegal activities.

On what constitute these illegal acts by the NPA

They kill people. They threaten people. They are collecting revolutionary taxation. They are training or recruiting [people] to be part of the NPA. Most of their leaders came from illegal organizations. Like Satur Ocampo, a former NPA, he did not surrender. He joined the legal movement. You have to push a case for that. They have not renounced their membership from the CPP. The CPP is supposed to be legal.…Under that party they have the NPA and the NDF. The NPA is the one we are running after. 

– Rappler.com


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Read other stories on Jovito Palparan here.

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