Together with their lawyers, Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño went to the Supreme Court on June 15 to ask the court to disclose the whereabouts of former general Jovito Palparan. They are the mothers of the missing activists Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño. Military forces under Palparan’s command abducted the two activists on June 26, 2006 in Hagonoy, Bulacan.

Palparan is imprisoned under reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment) without parole after his 2018 conviction for kidnapping and serious illegal detention of Cadapan and Empeño.

Together with Karapatan, the two mothers questioned Palparan’s disappearance from New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City. They found that Palparan was no longer in NBP when legal notices sent to him were returned marked “transferred to BuCor-Baguio” and “PMA Baguio.” But according to NBP, Palparan is only in the “hospital.”

“The conflicting answers intensify suspicion that Palparan is being given special treatment,” said JL Burgos, spokesperson of Desaparecidos, a group of relatives and friends of victims of state-enforced disappearances. Under the Duterte regime, BuCor allowed SMNI in 2022 to interview Palparan inside the prison where he again red-tagged and justified the abduction of the two activists.

Burgos also stressed that Palparan was detained in the minimum security compound instead of the maximum security compound for those convicted of heinous crimes.

“More alarming is the report that Palparan is in the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in Baguio, which is neither a BuCor facility nor a hospital,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said. “If he was indeed brought there, we demand an explanation from BuCor. He must also be returned to the NBP maximum security compound where he belongs,” she added.

The petition filed before the Supreme Court aims to “compel the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) to disclose the current whereabouts of Jovito Palparan.”