Palparan cleared of kidnap charge by Bulacan court

A regional trial court in Bulacan on Friday acquitted retired Army Major Gen. Jovito Palparan on charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention with serious physical injuries filed by farmers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo.

The decision was handed down by the Malolos City Regional Trial Court Branch 19.

Complainant Raymond Manalo is a surviving witness-victim in the kidnapping of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in 2006.

In 2018, Palparan was convicted of kidnapping and serious illegal detention for the disappearance of Cadapan and Empeño.

In a statement, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers chairperson Edre Olalia said the ruling was “simply unbelievable if not disturbingly shocking.”

“It is even a huge challenge to make sense of how he can be earlier convicted mainly on the basis of the testimony of the same witness survivor by one court and years later would be acquitted on the same testimony in a separate case brought by the same said witness survivor in another court,” Olalia said.

Labelled as a “butcher” by activists, Palparan led the anti-communist drive called “Oplan Bantay Laya” under then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.