As DOJ reviews, lawyers call on court: Hold Palparan, Badoy, and SMNI in contempt

MANILA, Philippines – The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) on Tuesday, April 19, filed a request with the Court of Appeals (CA) to hold in contempt of court those behind the controversial TV interview of convicted kidnapper Jovito Palparan, as the Department of Justice (DOJ) is taking a while to review.

The NUPL said in a motion to the CA First Division that the interview with retired major general Palparan, convicted of kidnapping and serious illegal detention for the disappearance of UP student activists in 2007, was a violation of a 2000 operations manual of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

The NUPL said the 2000 manual says an interview request of a convict may be denied if he or she has a pending criminal case. Palparan, aside from his 2018 conviction, has a pending separate case for kidnapping and serious illegal detention and serious physical injuries filed against him by Raymond Manalo before the Malolos RTC Branch 19.

The NUPL filed the motion with the CA First Division because that is where Palparan’s conviction is being appealed. Because of the pending case rule, the NUPL said “the request for media interview by SMNI of appellant Palparan should not have been granted, but denied outright.”

BuCor Director General Gerald Bantag granted the interview of Palparan to SMNI, a news network owned by doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy who is wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for sex trafficking of children.

It was press undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, who is facing multiple complaints at the Office of the Ombudsman for her red-tagging spree across sectors, who interviewed Palparan. The convicted former military officer portrayed himself in that interview as a victim of communists.

“It is respectfully prayed of this Honorable Court that Major General Jovito S. Palparan, Jr., Usec. Lorraine Badoy and the SMNI Network be cited in contempt of court,” said the NUPL.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) was kept in the dark about the interview held March 31, and immediately Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra asked his undersecretary for corrections, Deo Marco, to investigate.

Two weeks since, Marco told reporters Monday, April 18, that the reports submitted by BuCor are still under technical review. The DOJ also has yet to give media a copy of the latest BuCor manual, if it is different from the 2000 manual that the NUPL was citing.

Pending conclusion, Guevarra told reporters “let’s just put it this way – I would rather that BuCor consult the DOJ, as its mother agency, on matters of public interest that may give rise to legal questions or involve policy considerations.”

“As you all probably know, the Office of the Justice Secretary is not hard to access,” Guevarra said.

This is just the latest of BuCor controversies that DOJ had to answer for, being the mother agency. But the DOJ has continued to insist that the BuCor law gave the bureau a certain kind of autonomy, leaving the DOJ with only supervisory powers.

The NUPL has written BuCor to complain about supposed privileges extended to Palparan like keeping him in the Minimum Security Compound instead of the Maximum Security Compound, where all convicts sentenced to reclusion perpetua should be kept.

On Tuesday, the lawyers repeated these to the CA and requested the apellate court “to terminate all the special privileges and treatment being accorded to Palparan.”