Palparan congratulated arresting officers: ‘Naisahan n’yo ako’

Retired General Jovito Palparan readily went with the arresting officers and even commended them after they found him in a Sta. Mesa, Manila neighborhood on Tuesday before dawn.

 

Maj. Gen. Eduardo Año, the chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said his former senior officer Palparan congratulated him and even gave thanks now that he could undergo medical treatment for hypertension and diabetes.

 

"Kinausap ko siya, tsineck ko kung okay siya. Sabi niya he is okay. He even congratulated me.... Sabi ko, 'No, Sir, it's not about that. It's looking at your situation now'," Año told reporters in a news briefing hours after Palparan's arrest. 

Año is the chief of Task Force Runway that the military formed to track down one of its former high-ranking officials. He said he was never assigned under Palparan but was able to work with the retired general in the Army headquarters.

 

"Sabi naman niya, nagpapasalamat na rin siya at nahuli siya, now he can have a proper medical checkup and he can have his day in court," Año said.

‘No active officer helped Palparan’
 

Año said that no active member of the Armed Forces helped Palparan during the three years that he went into hiding after a Bulacan court issued a warrant for his arrest in 2011 on two counts of serious illegal detention for the disappearance of two UP students in the 2000s.

 

But Año showed how Palparan could have made a lot of friends in the military through his charm and humor.

 

"In fact, he was joking with our operatives and he was saying ang gagaling nyo, naisahan nyo ako kasi medyo naging very lax ako," Año said.  

 

"In a way, this is a good opportunity also for gen palparan to be able to defend himself in court and at the same time attend to some of his health concerns bec he has been suffering from various illness so this is thetime for him to be able to have a good proper medical check-up," he added.

 

Año stressed that Palparan did not approach any of his friends in the military to seek help when he was still a fugitive.

 

"He has many friends in the military because he was very good officer when he was in service, but nobody from the AFP is coddling him," Año said. 

 

"From the time na naging fugitive si Gen. Palparan, he cut his communications with his colleagues, in fact he seldom use cellphones," he added.

P2-million bounty goes to NISF informant
 

The NBI arrested Palparan but Año showed the deep involvement of military intelligence operatives in hunting down the officer that Communist rebels and leftist militants tagged as "The Butcher."

 

Año said intelligence units from the major branches were reporting on a weekly basis to Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and the AFP leadership before the breakthrough came on Tuesday.

 

He said there were leads to pursue including sightings of Palparan in Central Luzon, the Visayas and even in Mindanao.

 

"But this is always in coordination with other law enforcement agencies particularly the NBI and the [Criminal Investigation and Detection Group], so there are many attempts that were made in the past together with the NBI but we we failed," Año said.

 

"Finally, there was a breakthrought with the splendid effort of our NISF component, the Naval Intellgience and Security Force and natutunton nito ang isang bahay dito sa Sta. Mesa, wherein we got a report that General Palparan was staying there for almost already three months," he added.

 

Año said the NISF and the NBI saw Palparan after he withdrew money from a nearby automated teller machine "and then they served the warrant inthe house of certain Grace Roa."

 

At the time of his arrest, Palparan had a P2-million bounty. He went into hiding in December 2011.

 

Año said the money would go to the NISF informant.

Palparan’s phone to be examined

 

In an earlier report on GMA News TV's News To Go, the National Bureau of Investigation said it would examine Palparan's mobile phone to determine those who helped him evade arrest.

 

The Arroyo administration had praised Palparan for his counterinsurgency campaigns from 2001 to 2006, but the Melo Commission reported there was "certainly evidence pointing the finger of suspicion at some elements and personalities in the armed forces, in particular General Palparan, as responsible for an undetermined number of killings, by allowing, tolerating, and even encouraging the killings." —Amanda Fernandez/NB, GMA