MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals has upheld the kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges filed against retired Army general Jovito Palparan.
In a 15-page decision dated September 18 penned by Associate Justice Carmelita Salandanan Manahan and concurred by Associate Justices Fernanda Lampas Peralta and Elihu Ybanez, the CA’s 4th Division denied the petition for certiorari filed by Palparan seeking to recall the warrant for his arrest and the dismissal of the charges against him over the 2006 abduction and disappearance of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño.
The CA said an order denying a motion to quash is merely an “interlocutory”, thus, not appealable nor can be the subject of a petition for certiorari.
“Petitioner did not show that the trial court had no jurisdiction or exceeded its jurisdiction in denying the motion to quash, or gravely abused its discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in its denial,” the CA noted, adding that the allegations raised by Palparan are factual and evidentiary in nature, and thus should be ventilated in a full-blown trial.
The appellate court did not give weight to Palparan’s arguments that the Malolos Regional Trial Court disregarded his constitutional right to due process when it denied his motion to quash information and warrant of arrest on the same day it was filed on August 18, 2014.
Palparan was arrested in Manila on August 12, 2014, after three years in hiding following a botched attempt to flee the country.
Originally detained at the Bulacan provincial jail, he has since been transferred to military custody.
