By Mortz C. Ortigoza
Confessed killer of assassinated acerbic
tongued radio commentator Percieval Mabasa AKA Percy Lapid sworn in his
affidavit that the middleman of the grand murder scheme told him that the
mastermind of the dastardly act was Bureau of Corrections Chief General Gerald Bantag.
Self-confessed gunman Joel Escorial in his supplemental affidavit in the Department of Justice said a certain “Bantag” ordered him and fellow conspirators to kill hard-hitting broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa.
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| BELEAGUERED MURDER SUSPECT and former Bureau of Corrections Director General Gerard Bantag (top photo and clockwise) and some of the suspects on the grisly killing of acid tongued broadcaster Percy Lapid in the background of the press conference called by Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos. Third photo is confessed gunman Joel Escorial. Escorial and some his co-conspirators incriminate Bantag as the mastermind on the murder of Lapid. |
“Sa aming pag-uusap
noong Oktubre 16, 2022, mga bandang eight ng gabi, sinabi po [ni Villamor] sa akin na kapag nahuli ako ng mga pulis,
huwag ko raw pong sabihin na si Bantag ang nag-utos sa amin,” Escorial said
in his five-page affidavit submitted for the preliminary investigation,
according to a report by GMA News’ 24 Oras.
Cristito Villamor Palaña (previously
identified as Crisanto or Jun Villamor) was the middleman inside the national
penitentiary in Muntinlupa that induced Escorial and company for the more
half-a-million pesos’ yeoman job to kill the media man.
Lawyer
Danilo Pelagio, counsel of the Mabasa family, said on November 3, that witnesses
like in those three gangs’
Sputnik, Happy Go Lucky, and
Batang City Jail in the calaboose had identified Bureau
of Corrections Director General Gerard Bantag as the mastermind.
If the flamboyant
tough talking Bantag – who carried two samurais and Israeli made Uzi submachine gun
when he assumed the BuCor in 2019 replacing Nicanor Faeldon - was indeed the Principal,
then the powder keg that snapped out Lapid’s life was triggered by the
following commentaries:
In September 5, 2022
vlog – a personalized video posted in YouTube - he attacked through a blind
item a high government official who enriched himself through sleaze from
nothing:
“Merong opisyal sa Department of
Justice na tinagurian ang Lalaking Cinderella, hehehe. Hindi Hindurupot ha?
Lalaking Cinderella mga kabayan. Itong DOJ opisyal na ito ay alam ninyo ba ay
nakatira na sa isang pangunahing subdivision sa lalawigan ng Laguna. Ba! Mahal
na subdivision iyan! Para ka na ring nakabili sa mga mayayaman para ka na rin
sa Ayala Alabang, ano po?” the
63 years old babbler reviled.
Because of the fleet of expensive cars this government officer owned, he
bought another vacant lot near his posh residence where he could park his
excessive number of vehicles, Lapid said.
He cited those cars seen on a video he showed at You Tube: P7 million’s
Toyota Land Cruiser, the P3 million’s Toyota Super Grandia, the P4 million’s
Nissan Patrol, the new muscle car’s Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Dorango, and others
that are part of the 15 vehicles this government official – whose salary could
not approximate his wealth - properties.
“Dapat isalang ito sa life style check ni DOJ Secretary Remulla sapagkat kahinahinala ang biglang pagyaman nito. Dati patay gutom walang wala ito noong bago siya mabigyan ng mataas na puwesto ni Digonyo (play of word to sound like a devil of the nickname of former President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte)…”
In his succeeding day radio
broadcast in YouTube, Lapid named and scathingly lambasted Bantag:
“Ang tindi ano po lintik din pala magmura ito,
ano in public? Alam niya kaya ang ginagawa niya?” he said when a source told him that Bantag called
him putang in* (son of a bitch) when
the media asked about Lapid’s blind item in his earlier video.
Lapid quoted Bantag criticism against him: Anong paki-alam niya kung may bahay ako?
He deplorably said in
his vlog how connection with the power that be transformed Bantag as the top
man of the slammer. He used to be a jail officer only in Paranaque (as warden there he was acquitted by the
court on the grenade blast that killed 10 of the inmates mostly detainees of
narco cases - MCO) who became a
correction director that replaced top ranked deserving officials.
Bantag is a member of
the Philippine National Police Academy Class of 1996. During his appointment to
the BuCor he had a rank of Lt. Colonel.
“Alam ninyo ang pananalita ni Bantag iyan ang sinasabi ko either hindi
niya alam hindi niya kabisado iyong Bibliya ng mga taga gobyerno iyang Code of
Conduct and Ethical Standard for Public Officials and Employees. Diyan palang
puwede ka ng kasuhan”.
He could also be sued,
the late broadcaster opined, with Anti-Graft & Corrupt Practices Act
because of unexplained deaths of prisoners in the national brig many of them
accused of illegal drug cases and mysteriously died under his watch.
During the stints of
the tough talking former Bucor’s boss in year 2020, there were recorded 1,082
deaths among the prisoners in all of its seven prisons and penal farms
nationwide, up by 43.5 percent from the previous year’s 754 deaths.
The number of person deprive
of liberty (PDL) deaths increased in 2021, with 1,166 of 48,501 prisoners who
died that year.
That is, belat sang Amay, a prisoner’s mortality
rate of 2.4 percent! That is way higher than the 0.2 percent universally
accepted figures for deaths while incarcerated.
This means that at
least three PDLs were dying every day in BuCor prisons in year 2021.
As of September this
year, BuCor recorded 708 inmate deaths nationwide.
Bantag was put into a 90-day preventive suspension by the government so he could not influence the investigation of the authority in relation to the killing.
***
The speed – 14 days
from the commission of the murder - how the DOJ and the law enforcers
identified the killer and his principals and accomplice is a new hope for us
media practitioners who are vulnerable to the evil design of those scoundrels
in and out of the government. The phenomenal dispatch of the DOJ and the law enforcers
would now make any would be malefactors to think twice to consummate their
sordid acts to us.
Since 1986, 197
reporters have been waylaid to death with the culprits mostly unidentified by
the cops.
Our assassinated
columnist Vir Maganes – who survived the first gun attempt of his killer in November
2016 - succumbed to death when the hit man chased him from the road to his
house in Villasis, Pangasinan by peppering him with six bullets of .45 hand gun
at his back in November 10, 2020.
Susmariosep, all of
these assassination attempts and the success of the second attempt ensued on
November.
“I could not go with you to the house of the
congressman because this was the month I almost died.” Vir told me in that middle of November when
I called him by phone that a solon-friend invited me to visit his house.
He was overcautious but that cautioness was
not enough – to paraphrase, te-he, James Ingram’s line: I did my best but my
best was not enough in his warble’s Just
Once.
The 60 years old plus Vir started to write
an op-ed article - many blistering - on Northern Watch Newspaper in year 2010 until his gory death
in 2020. I founded the newspaper at Dagupan City in 2007.
He is probably green with envy in his grave
with Lapid because of the P5 million reward dangled to the public by House
Speaker Martin Romualdez to whoever could incriminate the real identity of the
gunman.
Vir through the intercession of the
Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Eastern Pangasinan particularly
businessman and media darling Rosendo So could raise only a booty of P200, 000.
But that’s immaterial for me as long as the
cop with expediency could apprehend the culprits like Joel Escorial who
surrendered to the police in October 17 when he killed Lapid in October 3, 2022.
Thanks to the efficient sleuthing by the law enforcers by rewinding the tapes of those
security cameras in various places to capture the unwary killers before they commit
the murder.
READ MY OTHER BLOG:
The Lethal, Costly Weapons of a Cobra
MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA
I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials's idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.
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