Court will Absolve Bantag unless Zulueta Rats on Him

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Many were impressed about the speed of the sleuthing, the surrender of the gunman, and the filing of cases against the death of scathing tongued radioman Percieval Mabasa AKA Percy Lapid and the middleman Cristito Villamor Palaña -- who instructed the gunman about his prey.

From the October 3 assassination of Lapid, the October 18 death through suffocation of Villamor – Palana, and the November 7 filing of three consolidated complaint affidavits at the national prosecutor’s office by the law enforcers. That’s a staggering 27 days only! It’s a milestone concerning the 197 murders of members of the fourth estate since 1986 to present whose killers until now remain unknown to the authorities.

Photo credit: GMA-7

Despite there was no witness to directly link suspended Bureau of Corrections Chief Gerard Bantag to the killing of Lapid and Palaña, Justice Secretary Boying Remulla was gung-ho to include him and subordinate’s Superintendent Ricardo Zulueta, the convicted prisoners in the national penitentiary, and Denver Mayores - one in the slammer in Iwahig, Palawan.

Remulla relied on the totality test so the Mt. Province born fellow particularly will be convicted and suffer the life sentence inside the brig.

The test is a method of analysis where decisions are based on all available information rather than the bright-line rule. Bright-line rule – which for me is similar to the principle of “proof beyond reasonable doubt - means a clearly defined rule or standard, composed of objective factors, which leaves little or no room for varying interpretation.

The charges of the government against Bantag were not airtight and I see the government losing the case in either the Regional Trial Court, the Court of Appeals, or the Supreme Court.

***

The NBI, which under Remulla, cited the vitriols of Lapid against Bantag in his radio program as the powder keg that snapped out his life.

"Bantag had a clear motive to effect the murders. For Percy Lapid, it was the continued expose’ by the latter of the issues against the latter on his show Lapid Fire," NBI special action unit investigator Eugene Javier said. 

There were 160 individuals the police have listed as person of interest on their investigation whom Lapid castigated in the four winds at his popular radio program.

Some of them were former President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte whom the radio babbler called with regularity as “Digongyo” as play of word on   the name of the devil’s Demonyo, hahaha! Former President Gloria “Makapakal ang Mukha” Arroyo from her maiden’s surname “Macapagal. He fiercely attacked too President Bongbong Marcos, Senators Bong Go and Robin Padilla.

Photo credit: Twitter

Bantag turned the table lately against new BuCor Chief Gregorio Catapang and Justice Secretary Remulla to have the motive to set him up because of Catapang’s ambition to get the plum post from him and Remulla’s ambition to be a senator in the 2025 election.

He dished out that Remulla was a marijuana user and the mastermind to his son’s apprehension because of the imported high grade dope from the United States.

 According to Bantag, as early as August this year, certain people wanted Catapang, now acting BuCor chief, to replace him. The former Armed Forces of the Philippines’ chief took the post of Bantag at the height of the Lapid probe.

“Gusto nila akong palitan nitong Catapang way back August. Alam na pala niya iyan. Binibigyan ko siya sana ng resignation ko, ayaw naman niya,” Bantag said on his supposed courtesy resignation to Remulla.

 The justice department’s honcho said Bantag should man up and avoid all his histrionics.

“Parang gusto kong magmura eh. Sinungaling ka, SOJ (Secretary of Justice)! Mag-step down ka na, ‘yan ang challenge ko. Wala ka na raw credibility, wala ka nang moral ascendancy sa puwesto mo,” Bantag said on November 11 during an interview with SMNI - owned by U.S fugitive Apollo Quiboloy.

Bantag, a member of the police academy class of 1996, said that Remulla wanted to control over the narco bigwigs inside the calaboose that’s why he wanted to yank him out.

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Without SJ02 Zulueta – who is now at large but ordered the three gang leaders to kill through suffocation Palana – exposing Bantag as the master mind, the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court – after five to seven years of litigation will absolve Bantag in case the judge of the Regional Trial Court ordered his arrest and eventually convicted him - the most popular decision to do to avoid the wrath of public opinion despite the weakness of the case against him.

The Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court will exonerate Bantag due to the principle of “Proof beyond reasonable doubt”. It means the evidence presented by the prosecution must produce in the mind of the Court a moral certainty of the accused's guilt when there is a scintilla of doubt. (People of the Philippines-Plaintiff-Appellee, Vs. PO1 Dennis Jess Esteban Lumikid, Accused-Appellant)

This will happen because of the absence if not the non-cooperation of Zulueta to rat against Bantag. Without his deputy security chief siding with the “People” there is no personal knowledge for the court to hear that Bantag ordered the murder of the duo.

 Bantag will be likened to the fate of Police Officer 1 Dennis Jess Lumikid.

Jailed for the death of broadcaster Desiderio "Jessie" Camangyan at Manay town, Davao Oriental in June 14, 2010, PO1 Lumikid was detained from November 3, 2010 to June 23, 2020 or almost ten years after his nonbailable detention and where the Supreme Court reversed the decisions of the RTC and the C.A through the lack of proof of beyond reasonable doubt based on the inconsistency of the lone – witness the common law wife of Camangayan who allegedly saw the killer glance at her after peppering with bullets the radioman.

After the high court saw the transcripts of her police interview hours after the killing where she did not know and see the assailant (Revised Rules of Evidence called that as Res Gestae (statement made by a person while a starting occurrence is taking place or immediately prior or subsequent thereto thus giving it a legal significance by the court) and her later sworn statements that she saw Lumikid twice before and after the killing, the SC reversed the decisions of the lower courts and set the cop for free.

I don’t know if the doctrine enounced in 1769 by William Blackstone was in the mind of the Ponencia that penned the sorry plight of Dennis Jess Lumikid.

 Blackstone ascribed that “the law holds that it is better that 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer (the conviction)”.

In case Bantag allows himself to be arrested by the peace officer through the order of RTC that could be a month or two from now –the time frame is due to the preliminary investigation’s complaint affidavit, counter affidavit, reply affidavit, and rejoinder affidavit -- Bantag will be detained at the slammer in the Bureau of Jail, Management, & Penology (BJMP) in Paranaque as mandated by law because it was the situs of the death of Lapid.

He declared however this morning (November 11) at CNN-Philippines television that he would not allow himself to be arrested because he knows Remulla has the sway for his arrest.

Bantag used to be the warden in Paranaque where he awed President Duterte when ten mostly narco big time suspects died in a grenade explosion in his office. The RTC there absolved him as perpetrator to those deaths while President Duterte appointed him as BuCor Chief as secondment in September 2019. Duterte made him full time chief in March 2022. 

Full time means that if he would be exonerated by the court – RTC, C.A, or SC - he would be back in the BuCors. What will happen, salamabit, to those persons deprived of liberty there who incriminated him?

Did I hear somebody shout “Put*ng Ina, nasaan na ang plastic bag”? Hahaha!

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

The Lethal, Costly Weapons of a Cobra

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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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.