MANILA: Nabbed kidnapping and serious illegal detention suspect Jovito Palparan Jr, a retired Army major general, filed a motion yesterday to stop his transfer to a regular jail in Bulacan.
In his ex-parte motion, Palparan’s lawyers asked the Malolos Regional Trial Court to reconsider the commitment order it issued for his transfer to the provincial jail scheduled yesterday, citing security risks.
“The said Commitment Order may have been hastily issued without taking into consideration the apprehensions and fears of the accused for his life’s safety and security,” the motion said.
Palparan’s camp said that fears for the former ranking official are “real, imminent and continuing” as he is considered a person of interest of communist rebels, whom he has hunted down in the course of his military career.
“The military intelligence reports about a (New People’s Army) liquidation squad out to kill Major General Jovito S Palparan Jr (Armed Forces of the Philippines, retired) made public by top honchos of the AFP the day after the arrest of the accused on 12 August 2014 only stretches such fears and apprehensions,” his lawyers noted.
After he was arrested Tuesday, Palparan said in various media interviews that his three-year hiding was not due to guilt in the disappearance of two former University of the Philippines students, Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan.
THE PHILIPPINE STAR
