Police teams formed to hunt down Palparan

(Updated 8:21 p.m.) Police teams have been formed to find controversial former Army general Jovito Palparan, who has been charged with the kidnapping of two UP student activists last seen in a military camp.   The tracker teams, at least three of them, were formed after the Philippine National Police (PNP) received a copy of the arrest warrant issued by a Bulacan court for Palparan and his three co-accused in the abduction and disappearance of two student activists five years ago.   “The order of the Chief PNP (Director General Nicanor Bartolome) is to proceed to all the known addresses of Major General Jovito Palparan so that he can be brought to court,” said PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. on Tuesday.   Palparan’s address listed in the arrest warrant was in Taguig City. Apart from him, also ordered arrested were Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado Jr., S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio, and M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario. Anotado and Osorio are already in police custody after they surrendered to authorities Tuesday afternoon, Cruz said. From military' custody, the two were turned over to a joint team from the National Bureau of Investigation and the PNP's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. They underwent booking procedures and are currently detained at the PNP Custodial Center inside Camp Crame in Quezon City, where they will remain "pending the issuance of a  commitment order from the court," Cruz said.   The four have been slapped with two counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the abduction and disappearance of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in Bulacan in 2006. No bail was recommended for them.   Meanwhile, the militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, in a statement on Tuesday, warned the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) against giving safe haven for Palparan and his co-accused.   “Those accused who are still in active service should be surrendered by the AFP to the jurisdiction of the courts,” the group said.   Reached for comment, AFP spokesman Col. Arnulfo Burgos said the military no longer has jurisdiction over Palparan since he has already retired from the service.   Asked if the three other accused are still in military service, Burgos told GMA News Online over the phone: "We are still checking if they are in the military service. Pero ang initial info ko ay retired na rin yata sila."   On Monday, Palparan was prevented from boarding a Singapore-bound plane at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Pampanga as he was on the Immigration watch list.   After Palparan’s retirement from the military in 2006, he won a seat in Congress through Bantay, the anti-communist party-list group he heads. Just before he retired, then-President Gloria Arroyo publicly commended him during her State of the Nation Address. — with Mark D. Merueñas/KBK/HS, GMA News