TAPPING PALPARAN FOR ANTI-DRUG DRIVE TO WORSEN GOVERNMENT'S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today warned that retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan will end up being a liability to the anti-illegal drug campaign by assigning him to either the Dangerous Drugs Board or Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as he rejected a Malacañang justification that giving him this role will serve as some kind of a scare tactics against drug traffickers and pushers.

Because of allegations that Palparan was involved in disappearances and summary executions of political activists during his stint in the military, Pimentel said the Palace's explanation merely increases the apprehension that the same extra-judicial methods will be employed in cracking down on suspects in drug-related offenses.

"I have no love lost for drug pushers or drug addicts. I am for eliminating this kind of problem. But it should be in accordance with law, not through extra-judicial methods by having many of them thrown into the Pasig River or found dead in some garbage dump in the metropolis," he said.

The minority lamented that the Palace pretends to be deaf and blind to the overwhelming public revulsion over the planned posting of Palparan to the anti-drug enforcement machinery.

"I cannot imagine a general whose human rights record is so blatantly oppressive that anybody could think of putting him as an official of the anti-drug campaign," Pimentel said.

He noted that even among anti-narcotics operatives of the PDEA, there is reservation over the choice of Palparan for this role. Reportedly, they fear that the retired general may set up his own "private unit," conduct his own anti-drug operation and use some extra-judicial measures against suspected drug dealers.

Pimentel said resurrecting Palparan's career, this time in the drug enforcement area, only creates the impression that the Arroyo government is not serious in its pledge to improve its human rights record.

"You give Palparan a chance to be anywhere in government, he will strive to extend the boundaries of his role," he said.

In fact, he said that shortly after the controversial general's retirement from the military service, he figured in an ugly incident when he ordered security guards to disperse demonstrators protesting the operation of a mining company in Zambales in which he served as a consultant.

Pimentel reiterated that the Arroyo government, instead of coddling Palparan, should heed the recommendation of the Melo Fact-Finding Commission to investigate him and hold him responsible for the string of disappearances and extra-judicial killings that happened in the provinces that were under the jurisdiction of his military unit.