MANILA – The Armed Forces denied coddling retired Major General Jovito Palparan amid the kidnapping convict’s continued detention at the Philippine Army Custodial Center.
They were still waiting for a court resolution on an appeal that Palparan’s lawyers filed against his transfer to a regular detention facility, spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo said in a statement released Monday.
Arevalo cited the “confusion” that the recent conviction of Palparan has created with regard to the facility where he should be committed to.
On Sept. 17 the Regional Trial Court Branch 15 in Malolos, Bulacan found Palparan and two others guilty of kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges over the disappearance of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in 2006.
Along with this conviction, “the court ordered that [Palparan] be confined at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa [City],” said Arevalo.
But Palparan was also facing another charge before RTC Branch 19 “for the Manalo brothers’ case,” the Armed Forces official noted.
For the latter case the court ordered that Palparan be committed to the Philippine Army Custodial Center at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
While the Manalo case was pending, “the accused’s continued commitment at the PACC stays by virtue of said Commitment Order,” Arevalo said.
Moreover, after their conviction, the lawyers of Palparan and his fellow convicts filed a motion for reconsideration on Sept. 18.
“Counsels also filed on Sept. 24 an urgent motion to defer the implementation of the order to transfer … Palparan, the resolution of which they are awaiting; hence, the continued detention at the PACC,” said Arevalo.
Right now the Armed Forces wants to know which commitment order takes precedence in Palparan’s case, he said.
“The conviction and the new commitment order to [Bilibid] in the Cadapan and Empeño case now confuses with the hitherto existing commitment order to the PACC in the Manalo brothers case,” said Arevalo.
To resolve this, the PACC filed on Sept. 24 a manifestation with motion praying for court determination which commitment order prevails. The first hearing on the matter was held on Sept. 28.
Arevalo assured that “in deferring the transfer, the [Armed Forces] is not protecting Major General Palparan, et al. It merely submits to the judicial processes already in place and running.” (With a report from Philippine News Agency/PN)
