Rappler Newscast | August 12, 2014

Today on Rappler.

• The face of human rights abuses in the Philippines, fugitive General Jovito Palparan is arrested.
• The Ebola death toll rises above 1,000.
• Award-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams is dead.

GENERAL PALPARAN, ‘THE BUTCHER,’ ARRESTED IN MANILA
The country’s most wanted man is arrested a stone’s throw away from a university that is home to student activists.
After three years in hiding, former military general Jovito Palparan — the face of human rights abuse in the country — falls to military operatives.
Carmela Fonbuena reports.

The chase is over for the country’s most wanted fugitive, accused of ordering the torture, rape, and execution of 2 University of the Philippines students.

MAJOR GENERAL EDUARDO AÑO, ISAFP CHIEF: NISF operatives together with NBI were able to get a glimpse of General Palparan and then they served a warrant in the house of certain Grace Roa so warrant was served and General Palparan really did not resist the arrest.

Known as The Butcher, the retired general is the poster boy for extrajudicial killings and human rights violations during the Arroyo administration.
The Armed Forces chief asks the public to give Palparan the benefit of the doubt.
The general has always been an anti-communist hardliner.

GENERAL GREGORIO PIO CATAPANG, AFP CHIEF: Noong tenyete kami, major siya. battalion commander siya ng 24th, ako assigned sa 69er battalion. magkasama kami niya
(He was major when we were lieutenants. He was the 24th (infantry division) battalion commander. I was assigned to the 69th battalion. We were allies.)
He was really an aggressive officer talagang strong anti-Communist. He really did his job well.
Kung talagang naniniwala tayo sa rule of law that everybody is innocent until proven guilty.
(If we really believe in the rule of law that everybody is innocent until proven guilty.)

One person’s executioner is another man’s hero.
Before his retirement in 2006, Palparan was a star in the State of the Nation address of President Arroyo, who praised the general for his patriotism.

GLORIA ARROYO, FORMER PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT: Sa mga lalawigang sakop ng 7th Division, nakikibaka sa paglaban si Jovito Palparan – hindi siya aatras hanggang makawala sa gabi ng kilabot ang mga pamayanan at maka-ahon sa bukang-liwayway ng hustisya at kalayaan.
(For the provinces under the 7th Division, those participating in the fight of Jovito Palparan – he will not back down until the communities are freed from this night of terror and will rise to  justice and freedom.)

He joined Congress in 2007 as representative of party list group Bantay and brought his war against leftist lawmakers to Congress. In 2010, he ran for the Senate along with former communist leader Satur Ocampo. They both lost.
In December 2011 a Bulacan regional trial court ordered his arrest for the disappearance of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno.
He goes into hiding before he is arrested and has been underground for 3 years.

CARMELA FONBUENA, REPORTING: The arrest of General Palparan is a reminder of the military’s ugly human rights record and the danger when the means are justified to meet the goal of ending Asia’s longest running insurgency.
It’s a ghost that a supposedly reformed military needs to confront,especially now that it can boast of capturing one of its own. Carmela Fonbuena,Rappler, Manila

PALPARAN ARREST A STEP TOWARDS CLOSURE
Linda Cadapan, the mother of student Sherlyn Cadapan asks Palparan to tell the families where the missing girls are.

LINDA CADAPAN, MOTHER OF SHERLYN CADAPAN: Criminal! Criminal na tao Jovito Palparan. Alalahanin mo 8 taon ako naghihirap. Isang ina ng kalaban. Walang tigil na naghahanap ng katarungan naghahanap ng hustisya naghahanap sa aking anak. Kaya sana panagutin mo na ilitaw na ang aking anak at ang kanyang kaibigan.

(Criminal! Jovito Palparan – a criminal. Remember – I suffered 8 years. The mother of the enemy. I never stopped seeking for justice, while looking for my daughter. So take responsibility – show us where my daughter and her friend are.)

Alalahanin mo ang iyong mga kasalanan sa taong bayan. Hindi lamang si Sherlyn Cadapan at Karen Empeno ang iyong ginawan ng kahayupan.  Alahanin mo 206 mahigit pa ang mga dinukot kung saan pa nagagaling mga lugar.

(Remember your sins to the people. It wasn’t just Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno who suffered. Remember – more than 206 were abducted from all over.)

On June 26, 2006, University of the Philippines students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan were abducted by several gunmen in Hagonoy, Bulacan.
Witnesses claim they were tortured under military custody.
There is no word whether the missing girls are still alive.
Palparan is named as the mastermind in the abductions.

LINDA CADAPAN, MOTHER OF SHERLYN CADAPAN: Alalahanin niyo June 26 2006 sa araw na yun, aanim ang dinukot niyo  sa iba ibang lugar. Ngayon lamang natatakot sa iyo dahil sa iyong kasamaan takot po sila mamatay. Ngunit kami walang takot maghanap sa iyo. Di po kami titigil kaming walang kasalanan sa iyo.. Kayo ang may kasalanan sa amin kaya di kami dapat matatakot.

(Remember the day of June 26 2006 – you abducted 6 from all over. They were afraid of you because of your evil – they were afraid to die. But we’re not afraid to hunt you down. We don’t owe you anything – you owe us.)

PALPARAN: ‘I DON’T WANT TO DIE IN THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY’
Retired Major General Jovito Palparan said he went into hiding because of a threat so “massive” he prefered to be in control of his security rather than leave his fate to authorities.
He quotes the New People’s Army as saying he’s a “dead man walking.”

JOVITO PALPARAN, RETIRED MAJ GENERAL: May problema ako sa security.  Malaki ang threat. I think alam naman ninyo. Alam ng media. In public may pronouncements sila na, pag-retire ko pa lang e, naka-banner na sa Inquirer by NPA na ‘Palparan, dead man walking’
I cannot really assure myself na secured ako.
(I have a problem with security. There’s a big threat against me. I think the media is aware of this. Right after I retired, they (NPA) already had a banner on Inquirer saying, ‘Palparan, dead man walking.)
Alam mo ang threat sa akin is so massive.
(The threat against me is so massive.)

Palparan says he did not attempt to resist arrest.
He says he would be willing to be jailed anywhere that is safe from the “enemy.”

JOVITO PALPARAN, RETIRED MAJ GENERAL: Ang worry ko actually, sa mga ganoon kung mayroong kasamang nerbyoso. I’d like to congratulate the NBI wala namang nerbyoso na basta-basta na lang nagpapaputok. In some incidents kasi, mayroon kasing gagamit ng unnecessary violence. So wala naman. I’m still alive and I’m thankful for that.
(My biggest fear was one of the operatives would be so nervous that there will be inadvertent gunfire. I’d like to congratulate the NBI, thankfully no one was like that.
There were some incidents that there was unnecessary violence. In my arrest, there was none. )

The arrest was proper. Sabi ko nga sa mga kasama ko, if there will be an arrest hindi ko kailangan ng counter or protection, I’d give up myself.
(I told my colleagues, if there will be an arrest, I wouldn’t need a counter or protection.)

4 days, 3 days ago nararamdaman ko basa ako sa lugar.
(4 days or 3 days I had a gut-feel they already knew where I was.)

He says he is worried for his health and will undergo a health exam.
Palparan claims all evidence against him were lies. He says his accusers from the left are very good at fabricating evidence.

Q: Pahayag sa mga nag-a-accuse?
(What’s your message to those accusing you?)

JOVITO PALPARAN, RETIRED MAJ GENERAL: Hindi totoo yan.
(None of it is true.)
Ang dami nilang manufactured evidence. So, kawawa yung isang sundalo na itinuro nila dahil ginawang security ko, additional security noon na request ko. Itinuro lang nung isang witness na kasama daw yun, nakulong na hanggang ngayon, walang kaalam-alam yung tao. Ganoon sila mag-manufacture ng evidence or witnesses.
(They had so much manufactured evidence. I feel sorry for one of the soldiers who served as my security. One of the witnesses said he was my ally so they had him arrested. He’s still in prison until today even though he really knows nothing. That’s how they manufacture evidence or witnesses.)

Yan ang example how untruthful how they are doing it.
(That’s an example how untruthful how they are doing it.)

PALACE: NO SPECIAL TREATMENT FOR PALPARAN
Malacañang assures the public – retired Major General Jovito Palparan will not be given special treatment in detention.
Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma says Palparan can now “go through the process of accountability.”  
Palparan himself says he would not seek special treatment – only security from his “enemies” and an impartial trial.
The Aquino government offered a P2-million bounty for Palparan’s capture.
Palparan went into hiding when a Bulacan regional trial court issued a warrant for his arrest in December 2011…
for the 2006 abduction of students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno.

PH HITS CHINA OVER SEA PLAN: ‘WE’RE HUMORING OURSELVES’
The Philippines hits China for rejecting Manila’s plan to stop provocative acts in the South China Sea, even as ASEAN posed no objections to the initiative.
China rejected the proposed Triple Action Plan.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says Philippine behavior “contradicts” its own proposal.
Wang says the Philippines should withdraw its push for international arbitration and call for a moratorium.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario says the Triple Action Plan is centered on the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, or DOC.
Both the Philippines and China signed the declaration.
He says if China doesn’t accept the plan, then it doesn’t believe in the DOC.     

EBOLA DEATH TOLL TOPS 1,000; LIBERIA AWAITS EXPERIMENTAL DRUG
The World Health Organization or WHO says the death toll in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa passed 1,000.
The WHO says as of Tuesday, 1,013 people died in the outbreak, with 1,848 reported cases.
In response, American company Mapp Bio sends all doses of its experimental anti-Ebola drug ZMapp to West Africa.
A collaboration between US and Canadian researchers, ZMapp was manufactured in tobacco leaves and is difficult to produce on a large scale.
Effects of the drug are still unknown because it has not been rigorously tested.
Mapp Bio says any decision to use the drug “must be made by the patients’ medical team.”
The two American missionaries who fell ill with Ebola last July were given doses of the drug.
Both have improved after being given the drug.
A Spanish priest infected by Ebola was also given a dose but dies Tuesday, 5 days after being evacuated from Liberia.
In the Philippines, 30 policemen deployed in Liberia for a United Nations mission are declared Ebola-free.
The peacekeepers are scheduled to return to the Philippines this month.

THE wRap: YOUR WORLD IN ONE READ

IRAQ NOMINATES NEW PM TO REPLACE MALIKI
Iraqi President Fuad Masum accepts the nomination of new prime minister Haidar al-Abadi.
Abadi has 30 days to form a government that is expected to heal Iraq’s sectarian divides.
Abadi takes over from Nuri Al-Maliki, nominated by the Iraqi parliament’s Shiite bloc.
Maliki had been partly blamed for the current Iraqi crisis because he alienated the Sunni minority.

PH’S A-TEAM WINS 2014 WORLD HIP HOP DANCE COMPETITION
Philippine hiphop dance group A Team wins the gold medal at the 2014 World Hip Hop dance contest in Las Vegas.
New Zealand’s ID CO won the silver, while Russia’s Flyographers Dance Team took home the bronze.
The winning team was led by two coaches known in the Philippine hip hop community, Angelica and MJ Arda.

For the full top 10 visit Rappler.com’s ‘the wRap.’

ACTOR ROBIN WILLIAMS DEAD
Award-winning Hollywood actor Robin Williams is found dead in his home in California, Tuesday, Manila time.
California police suspects Williams committed suicide through suffocation by asphyxia.
Williams had openly spoken in the past about his struggles with alcohol and drugs.
His wife Susan Schneider said in a statement, “I am utterly heartbroken.
On behalf of Robin’s family, we are asking for privacy during our time of profound grief.”
Williams  earned Oscar nominations for his performance as an inspirational English literature teacher in “Dead Poets Society” and
for playing a mentally ill homeless man mourning the loss of his wife in 1991’s “The Fisher King.”
He finally landed a coveted Oscar for 1997’s “Good Will Hunting,” which helped launch the Hollywood careers of co-stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

– Rappler.com

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