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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider NUPL asks BuCor to discipline officers, personnel 'for giving special privileges' to prisoner Palparan

NUPL asks BuCor to discipline officers, personnel 'for giving special privileges' to prisoner Palparan

Published Apr 1, 2022 06:40 pm

NUPL

The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) on Friday, April 1, has been asked to impose disciplinary actions against its officers and personnel for allegedly giving special privileges and treatment to retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito S. Palparan Jr. who has been detained on conviction for the disappearance of two university students.

In a letter addressed to BuCor Director General Gerald Q. Bantag, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) decried that “accused Maj. Gen. Palparan is enjoying special privileges and preferential treatment even as he is already serving sentence for the crimes of which he was convicted.”

NUPL demanded the “immediate termination of any other special privileges and treatment currently accorded Maj. Gen. Palparan” and the imposition of “disciplinary sanctions upon officers and personnel of the BuCor responsible for violating the Implementing Rules and Manual....”

It also demanded “the immediate transfer of accused Maj. Gen. Palparan to the Maximum-Security Facility of the New Bilibid Prisons” and the “denial of all requests for interviews with Maj. Gen. Palparan from the media.”

The letter was signed by NUPL President Edre U. Olalia, Secretary-General Ephraim B. Cortez, and lawyers Julian Oliva Jr. and Josalee S. Deinla -- the private prosecutors in the kidnapping and serious illegal detention case against Palparan.

Palparan was convicted in September 2018 by the Malolos City regional trial court (RTC) of kidnapping and serious illegal detention for the 2006 disappearance of University of the Philippines (UP) students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan.

The NUPL sent the letter after learning that Palparan, who is detained in the Minimum-Security Compound of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City, was allowed to be interviewed by National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) Spokesperson Lorraine Badoy and broadcaster Franco Baranda over SMNI News network.

NUPL reminded BuCor that Palparan has been “sentenced to reclusion perpetua, pursuant to the Revised Implementing Rules of Republic Act No. 10575 (Bureau of Corrections Act of 2013)” and that the Bilibid’s Minimum-Security Compound is “the detention and holding area for prisoners who were given light sentences or are about to be released and/or already considered ‘living out’ prisoners.”

It also pointed out that the interview over SMNI News network was done “without the knowledge and permission of the Department of Justice or the Court where the criminal cases against him are pending.”

“On top of the atrocious statements and gratuitous remarks in the interview that are also legally actionable, the BuCor’s Director General should have denied the request pursuant to Section 5 (d), Chapter 3 of the 2000 Bureau of Corrections Manual, considering that ‘the inmate is the accused or otherwise involved in a pending criminal case’,” it said.

It also lamented that the court had to issue an order to move out Palparan from the Bilibid’s Directorate for Reception and Diagnostics (DRD).

It noted that prisoners are placed at the DRD “for classification, physical, mental and psychological evaluation and social and other behavioral traits assessment supposedly for a maximum period of only sixty (60) days.”

“However, accused Maj. Gen. Palparan was detained at the Directorate for Reception and Diagnostics (DRD) for more than a year, and was even appointed ‘Governor’ (Mayor de Mayores) of the DRD and was given free access to a computer and the mass media when he was interviewed by Usec. Mocha Uson sometime in 2019, in violation of the strict jail rules on media access of inmates and persons deprived of liberty,” it stressed.

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