Manhunt gladdens heart of US activist

Jovito Palparan Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

LOS ANGELES—The hunt for the fugitive Jovito Palparan Jr. is one more reason for this Filipino-American activist to be merry this Christmas.

“Definitely, this is a step toward justice,” Melissa Roxas, who has accused the Philippine military of abducting and torturing her in May 2009 when she was on a visit to the country of her roots, told the Inquirer.

“Now what the [Philippine] government needs to do is really make sure Palparan is arrested and punished for his crimes against humanity,” Roxas said.

Palparan retired from the military as a major general in September 2006. He subsequently sought and won a seat in Congress as a representative of the Bantay party-list group, which was once described by a top Army officer based in Central Luzon as a group “that sides with soldiers.”

He, along with three military officers, is now charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the June 2006 abduction of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, who remain missing to this day.

Palparan is being hunted by the police and military as well as agents of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Intimidation

Roxas said that even if Palparan had already retired when she was abducted, he attended the hearings on her case as a representative of Bantay “to intimidate me as a survivor of torture and abduction and to try to discredit my testimony despite the evidence presented.”

“[Palparan] and his men can’t get away with what they did,” she said.

Roxas is an American of Filipino descent who is engaged in an international campaign against human rights violations in the Philippines.

In October, she was selected by the San Francisco-based Filipina Women’s Network as one of the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the United States.

Roxas commended the Cadapan and Empeño families and human rights groups for pushing for justice for the two missing students.

She told the Inquirer that she also wanted to see then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo punished for her abduction and torture, as well as all the other human rights violations committed under the latter’s administration.

“As the Commander in Chief, she should be held responsible,” Roxas said.

International venue

Roxas has said in a sworn statement that she was abducted in La Paz, Tarlac, on May 19, 2009, and taken to a military camp presumed to be Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija.

She said she was accused of being a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, and was repeatedly interrogated and beaten.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has denied her claims and even said that these might be intended to discredit the military.

Frustrated by what she described as the lack of justice in the Philippines under Arroyo, Roxas returned to the United States “to pursue the international venue” for seeking justice.

Recently, she took her case to the UN special rapporteur on torture with the help of the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School and the California-based law firm Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris Hoffman & Harrison LLP.

She has also filed a complaint in the US state department and asked the US government to conduct an “impartial and vigorous investigation of the Philippine government’s culpability” in her abduction and torture.

Futile remedies

Also recently, Roxas asked the UN special rapporteur on torture to call on the Philippine government to fully disclose information on her case, cooperate with investigations and pursue charges against those responsible.

“Ms Roxas has actually pursued domestic remedies within the Philippines, but to no avail,” said Victoria Don, an attorney with Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris Hoffman & Harrison, which is handling her case with the United Nations.

“At this point, there is little recourse for her but to turn to international mechanisms for justice,” Don said.