MANILA – Various groups in the University of the Philippines (UP) called for justice on June 24 as they commemorated the tenth year of disappearance of former students and youth activists Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño.
UP students, kin and human rights group Karapatan held a cultural protest at the Palma Hall lobby in UP Diliman.
The two were abducted by soldiers on June 26, 2006 along with peasant Manuel Merino in San Miguel village, Hagonoy, Bulacan province.
The victims’ mothers, Concepcion Empeño and Erlinda Cadapan expressed outrage at the lack of closure in their daughters’ whereabouts and condition.
Meanwhile, Retired Major General Jovito Palparan, the accused criminal mastermind of the crime, is detained at the Philippine Army Custodial Center in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, instead of a regular jail. He recently refused to file a plea on the kidnapping and illegal detention cases filed by another set of victims, brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo.
Text and photos by GINO ESTELLA
