In light of the court hearing today on the case of two missing UP students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan, Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raymond “Mong” Palatino urged all members of the House of Representatives to help in the arrest of Ret. M/Gen. Jovito Palparan, the main suspect in the abduction case.

Through House Resolution no. 2055 filed last month, Palatino is enjoining all members of the House to support and participate in state and citizen efforts to bring to justice Palparan in the interest of human rights and rule of law.

“Given the vast and strong presence of district representatives at the local level and the national character of party-list groups, the duly elected representatives of the people must wield their full power and utilize all resources at their disposal to help find and arrest the fugitive Palparan,” Palatino said.

In the warrant penned by Judge Teodora Gonzales of the Bulacan Regional Trial Court Branch 14, it is stated that “Any officer of the law… [is] hereby commanded to arrest M/Gen. Jovito S. Palparan Jr… who stands before this Court for the crime of Violation of Article 267 of the Revised Penal Code as Amended by RA 7659 and to bring him/her before me as soon as possible to be dealt with in accordance with law.”

Palparan, who remains at large up to this day, went into hiding after being stopped by immigration officials from fleeing the country last December 19, 2011.

Recently, New York-based Human Rights Watch bemoaned the apparent lag in Palparan’s arrest as strong indication that powerful military officials have taken him under their protection.

Palatino echoed the suspicion and dared the military to likewise mobilize its forces to find Palparan and hand him over to authorities. The youth solon also said that President Aquino should decisively exhaust all efforts to bring Palparan to justice.

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“Arresting Palparan is a big step toward attaining justice, not only for the two missing UP students, but also for the thousands who were harassed, tortured, abducted, and killed allegedly by Palparan and his ilk,” Palatino said.

Palparan, dubbed as “The Butcher” for his bloody human rights record, was assigned to different regions in the span of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya.

On June 26, 2006, Karen, Sherlyn and farmer Manuel Merino were abducted by armed men from a house in San Miguel, Hagonoy, Bulacan. During that time, Palparan was the commanding general of the Army’s 7thy Infantry Division whose mission was to conduct sustained Internal Security Operations in Central Luzon to neutralize the New People’s Army. The UP students, who were then conducting research on the plight of Bulacan farmers, were tagged by the military as members of the armed communist group.

Aside from the manhunt operations by police and other state forces, sectoral groups, human rights advocates and UP students and alumni have launched a “people’s manhunt” against Palparan. Part of the manhunt efforts is the putting up of “Wanted Palparan” posters in various public places and even social networking sites like Facebook. ###