Three teams sent to bring Palparan’s head

By ERNIE B. ESCONDE

BALANGA City, Bataan: Bataan police created three tracking teams to hunt retired Gen. Jovito Palparan after receiving information this month, the latest this Thursday morning, that the former Army officer was sighted in three towns in the province.

Senior Supt. Arnold Gunnacao, Bataan police director, said he has directed operatives to verify the reports that he received through two text messages of the presence of Palparan first in Bagac and the transfer to Morong, both mountain towns in Bataan close to the West Philippine Sea.

The second message received only Thursday morning said of the visit of the fugitive officer in Abucay, Bataan which was the base then of the 24th Infantry Battalion that Palparan headed as brigade commander, Gunnacao said.

“After analyzing the report, this can’t be far from feasible and very probable since General Palparan has made many accomplishments in Bataan. He has helped a lot of people after he recruited informers and assets in the fight against insurgency then,” the police officer said.

He said that the information he received made mention of names of owners of houses and places the general allegedly went in the three towns. “We have to confirm this first and we cannot release their names yet for operational security,” Gunnacao said.

He said that the owners of the houses or places Palparan visited may be liable, if confirmed, of the crime of harboring a criminal.

On Palparan being a “mistah” or a brother in the Philippine Military Academy, he said they will have to perform their sworn duties and have to arrest the former Army officer in the presence of a Warrant of Arrest. Gunnacao is a member of PMA class l985.

Reward money for the arrest of Palparan was increased from P500,000 to P1 million.

Gunnacao revealed the information to local reporters during the blessing of the renovated building of the provincial police Investigation and Intelligence Branch and the newly constructed chapel inside the Bataan Police Provincial Office in Balanga City.

Also, mass pinning was held for the promotion of 42 police officers holding positions of from Police Officer I to Senior Police Officer 3. The Manila Times