Palparan: Bulacan cops hunting me down

MALOLOS CITY – The tide has turned against retired Army general Jovito Palparan who claimed that police have been hunting him down for days.

However, Senior Superintendent Allen Bantolo, acting Bulacan police director, denied Palparan’s claim, saying that they have no arrest warrant for the retired general.

In a phone interview yesterday, Palparan told The STAR that he received information that men of the 306th Provincial Mobile Group have been looking for him.

Palparan was in Barangay Camachin in the mountain town of Donya Remedios Trinidad a few days ago to bring down members of his 24-Hours Security Agency guarding an iron ore mine site, in compliance with the temporary restraining order issued by Judge Rodolfo de Guzman of the San Ildefonso Municipal Trial Court last July 29.

De Guzman is hearing the case filed by Ore Asian Mining and Development Corp. (Ore Asia) against Palparan and officials of the Oro Development Corp. II (Odeco) last April 29 for forcible entry and damages. 

Palparan said he was just following the court order to bring his men down from the mine site when he got information that the police were looking for him. 

“I don’t know why I am being hunted,” said the retired general, who had been tagged by Central Luzon militants as berdugo (executioner) when he was the commanding general of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division from 2005 to 2006. 

Palparan said that two weeks ago, a guard of the K-9 Security Agency was killed and another was wounded when some 60 heavily armed men barged into their barracks, near the contested mine site, in Barangay Camachin, Donya Remedios Trinidad town.

The armed men, who introduced themselves as communist rebels, were reportedly looking for Palparan’s men or personnel of 24-Hours Security Agency, which Odeco II officials allegedly contracted when they raided and took over the facilities of Ore Asia last April 12.

Palparan said he is unsure if the armed men were indeed insurgents. “Baka drama lang iyon,” he said. 

Last week, he said policemen accosted four of his men and took their firearms. The four, he added, remain missing while their guns have been recovered from the town police.

Meanwhile, Bantolo confirmed to The STAR that men of the 306th Provincial Mobile Group went to Barangay Camachin yesterday to investigate the alleged sighting of armed men there.

Bantolo also maintained a hands-off policy on the row between Ore Asia and Odeco II in Barangay Camachin since it is now under litigation, saying their only concern is the reported “existence of armed men.”