Message to Palparan: Avoid slum areas!--urban poor group

PRESS RELEASE l 22 DECEMBER 2011
KALIPUNAN NG DAMAYANG MAHIHIRAP
Reference: Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national secretary general (0921.392.7457)

QUEZON CITY, Philippines--A militant urban poor group warns fugitive Gen. Jovito Palparan from hiding in slum areas and other urban poor communities that are bailiwick of militant organizations including Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay).

Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national secretary-general, says: "We have called on our community leaders nationwide to watch out for any possibility that the ex-general would take cover in urban poor communities after a Bulacan court has issued his arrest on Tuesday.".

Before the Philippine government has ordered the arrest of Palparan, the ex-general has long been dubbed as a dead man walking, and reported to have topped the list of considered criminals by the Communist Party of the Philippines' People's Court.

Urban militirization and EJK
Arellano says, the urban poor have not forgotten the havoc he brought to hundreds of urban poor communities that were militarized during his reign as the head of the Arroyo administration's anti-insurgency campaign.

From 2004 until today, military presence has been noted in urban poor communities that face threats of demolition, and those considered as bailiwicks of militant organizations.

Kadamay has also noted the extra-judiciary killing of two of its urban poor leaders in the Eastern Visayas and Cagayan Valley regions, among hundreds of other activists that were killed and abducted in regions where the ex-general was deployed.

A shame for the AFP
"His hiding only suggests guilt. It is a shame for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to have cuddled a 'butcher' like Palparan who is now turned into a fugitive of law," Arellano adds.

"Palparan has tarnished the integrity of the AFP, as the protector of civilian citizens, and the protector of law," says Kadamay.

"It must be a prerogative of the AFP to search for him and turn him over to the court to hear the criminal cases hailed against him," Arellano ends. ###