Palparan hid at the second floor of this old wooden house along Teresa Street in Sta Mesa, Manila. PHOTO BY EDWIN MULI
Palparan hid at the second floor of this old wooden house along Teresa Street in Sta Mesa, Manila. PHOTO BY EDWIN MULI

Retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, the “Berdugo” (butcher), as he is known among activist groups, is blamed for hundreds of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings across the country.

Based on the fact sheet by human rights group Karapatan (Rights), the following incidents are blamed on Palparan:

• In 1991, 100 townspeople in Sta. Cruz, Zambales were arrested, interrogated, and forced to sign “affidavits of surrender” by soldiers of the 24th Infantry Division. Within six days, 10 families were forced to evacuate due to shelling operations. Palparan claimed that they were “rebel surrenderees.”

• The torture of Marcelo Fakila, a leader of the Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance in Mountain Province and village elder in Sagada, was said to have been committed by Palparan during his deployment to the Cordillera Administrative Region. In 1992 alone, six cases of illegal arrest, five cases of harassment, one case of disappearance, one summary execution, a case of wounding, and two cases of evacuations, were recorded during his assignment in the region.

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• While Palparan was commander of Task Force Banahaw, which has jurisdiction over Rizal and Laguna, seven civilian killings were listed in 2001, including the death of a five-year-old.

• In April 2002, Bayan Muna coordinator Expedito Albarillo was tied and dragged out of his hut in San Teodoro, Oriental Mindoro by nearly 10 soldiers. His wife Manuela begged the soldiers for mercy. Relatives heard guns fired from 200 meters away and rushed to the scene. They found the couple lying face down in a pool of blood.

• The following month, Bayan Muna leaders in the same town were also gunned down by soldiers. The victims were Ruben Apolinar, his wife Rodriga, and their adopted daughter, Niña Angela.

• On 28 May 2002, activist Edilberto Napoles Jr. was shot near the Bayan Muna office in Calapan City.

• A fact-finding mission was formed to look into the cases of Albarillo, Apolinar, and Napoles. This was led by Karapatan \o “Southern Tagalog” Southern Tagalog secretary general Eden Marcellana and peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy. They were reported to have been tortured and killed as well by the soldiers of the 204th Infantry Division. The killings in Oriental Mindoro recorded 326 human rights violations involving 1,219 individual victims.

• Within six months of Palparan’s assignment in Eastern Visayas, Karapatan had recorded 570 human rights violations involving 7,561 individuals, 1,773 families, 110 communities, and 10 organizations.

• 136 cases of human rights violations were recorded under Palparan’s command in Central Luzon from September 2005 to August 2006, including 71 summary executions, five massacres, 14 frustrated killings, and 46 enforced disappearances.

(from WikiPilipinas)