Human rights defenders greet Palparan acquittal with outrage

BULACAN, Philippines – Lawyers and activists expressed shock and anger after a Malolos Regional Trial Court judge on Friday afternoon, November 6 dismissed charges of kidnapping and illegal detention with serious physical injuries that brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo filed against former general Jovito Palparan and five others.

“Unbelievable, if not, disturbingly shocking,” said National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers chairperson Edre Olalia of the decision handed down by Judge Francisco Felizmenio of Branch 19.

“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 priorly established,” said the lawyer.

“It is a huge challenge to make sense of how he (Palparan) can be earlier convicted, mainly on the basis of the testimony of the same witness survivor by one court, and years later be acquitted on the same testimony,” he added.

Christina Palabay, secretary-general of the human rights group Karapatan, raised a question. “Is this part of a grand scheme that will enable Palparan et.al.’s pardon in the near future?”

Palparan’s 2018 conviction

Olalia was referring to the September 2018 Malolos RTC Branch 15 conviction of Palparan and two others for the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of University of the Philippines (UP) students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan.

In acquitting Palparan, Malolos RTC Branch 19 Judge Francisco Felizmenio said the Manalo brothers had failed to clearly identify the men who abducted them.

Manalo’s lawyer Julian Oliva Jr., sharing points from the promulgation, said the judge also found flaws in Raymond’s recollection of his meeting in Bulacan with Palparan.

But that same testimony by Raymond was crucial to Palparan’s conviction, which the Court of Appeals upheld on June 5, 2022.

During the hearings on the Cadapan and Empeño case, the farmer told the court he saw both women at a military cell, where soldiers also kept him.

He testified seeing military men torture and sexually molest Cadapan, 29 at the time, and Empeño, 22.

Raymond also declared in court that he saw and talked to Palparan twice while in detention.

Manalo was abducted with his brother in February 2006. The abductions of Cadapan and Empeño happened in June of the same year.

Then Commission on Human Rights called the decision by Judge Alexander Tamayo “an important judgment.”

“It sends a strong signal that victims of human rights violations are still able to secure justice so long as there is a strong will on the part of the victims, their lawyers, and the human rights defenders who support them to hold perpetrators to account,” said then CHR chairperson Chito Gascon.

‘Lopsided justice system’

Palabay said the outcome on the Manalo brothers’ case is an example of a “lopsided justice system” on human rights violations.

The court “junked the truthful, credible and consistent accounts of the Manalo brothers, which have been affirmed many times over by several courts,” she added.

In upholding Tamayo’s judgement and dismissing Palaran’s appeal in June 2022, the CA’s First Division said, “the prosecution evidence is credible, clear and categorical.”

Felizmenio ‘s judgement, Palabay said, “disregarded the history and legal battle that the case of the Manalo brothers have gone through for 16 years.”

Manalo, even in tears, vowed to continue the fight and not rest until he and his brother get justice.

“Tuloy ang laban,” he told supporters. “Hindi ako titigil hanggat di ko nakakamit ang hustisya.” (The fight continues. I won’t stop until justice is served.) -Rappler.com