PALPARAN TO WORSEN GMA'S RIGHTS RECORD, PALACE WARNED

Reactivating retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan's career and have him lead
a drug enforcement agency merely create the impression that the Arroyo
administration is not serious in its pledge to improve its human rights
record.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday echoed the concerns
recently raised by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines
(CBCP) over the possibility of rights violations of suspected drug users
and pushers, citing the numerous charges against Palparan on alleged abuse
of authority.

Palparan's assumption to the top post of either the Dangerous Drugs Board
(DDB) or the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), as indicated by
the Palace, could only prove to be a liability to the administration as
far as advancing its anti-illegal drug campaign is concerned.

Pimentel rejected Malacanang's justification that giving him this role
will serve as some kind of a scare tactics against drug traffickers and
pushers.

"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," he noted.

"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," the senator said.

It's been often reported in the past that Palparan was supposedly
implicated in the 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.

He noted that Malacanang pretends to be deaf and blind to the overwhelming
public revulsion over the planned posting of Palparan to the anti-drug
enforcement machinery.

The senator said 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.

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

In fact, Pimentel said, 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.

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales earlier expressed reservation
against Palparan as part of the government in its anti-drug campaign,
citing his alleged "background of violence."

He stressed a person who should be appointed to such an agency must not
have records of human rights violations.

"Anyone they have to put in a very sensitive position must be a man of
integrity, proven with honesty and a man of peace," Rosales said.

Palo Archbishop Jose Palma also urged the government to consider
Palparan's alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings and
disappearances of activists before appointing him as chief enforcer of the
country's drug laws..

Palma was the bishop of Calbayog when Palparan was still the commanding
officer of the 8th Infantry Division based in Catbalogan, Samar.

The prelate said the government must pursue criminal prosecution of the
retired military officer instead of tapping his services in the campaign
against illegal drugs.

"While I recognize the power of the President in appointing government
officials, I challenge her to discern first if Palparan's appointment
would bring common good," Palma noted.