Philippine ex-general jailed over activists’ abduction

MANILA: A retired Philippine army general was sentenced yesterday to decades behind bars over the 2006 disappearance of two activists, hailed by campaigners as a rare case of a top official being held to account.

Jovito Palparan, dubbed ‘ The Butcher’ by leftist groups for his brutal anti-insurgency tactics against communist guerillas, was convicted of kidnapping and handed a minimum term of 20 years by a court in Bulacan province just north of Manila.

Palparan and three other exmilitary officers were accused of abducting two female university students in 2006, on the suspicion they were linked to communist groups. The women remain missing.

The court ruled that witness testimonies that the two students were seen in a military camp being tortured were “credible”. One witness said the women told him they were raped.

Human rights groups accuse Palparan of being behind the killing of leftists when he was a top military officer battling communist guerrillas in rural areas of the impoverished archipelago, under former President Gloria Arroyo.

“He was one with his men in the desire to stamp out the enemies of the state ... who they believe deserve to be erased from the face of the earth at any cost,” the court ruling said.

Palparan denied the charges, calling the judge ‘stupid’ as the verdict was read yesterday.

A government commission which investigated political killings said in 2007 that Palparan was a key suspect in murders of people deemed ‘enemies of the state’.

He went into hiding in 2011 after being charged in the case of the two activists, but was arrested in 2014.

The military has been accused of carrying out extra-judicial killings of opponents.

The 49-year communist rebellion in the largely Catholic nation is one of Asia’s longestrunning insurgencies and has claimed 30,000 lives by the government’s count.