OPINION | SENTINEL- What goes on behind the prison walls? | Ramon T. Tulfo
Suspended Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag must be psychologically impaired, given the way he badmouths Assistant Director Gregorio Catapang, Jr., his temporary replacement.
Bantag was ordered suspended by no less than President Bongbong “BBM” Marcos himself, for the death of Jun Villamor, the alleged middleman in the assassination of broadcaster Percy Lapid.
The suspended prisons chief said Catapang was a member of RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement), which took part in ousting president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1986.
Memento Maxima Digital Marketing @“Doesn’t he (BBM) know that General Catapang was a member of RAM, among those who ousted his father back then… You should be watchful, Mr. President, because (Catapang) could be your downfall,” said Bantag.
Catapang was Armed Forces chief of staff during the time of president Noynoy Aquino. He was appointed as assistant director in the BuCor during the time of president Digong Duterte.
What’s wrong with Bantag?
Bantag lugged an Uzi machine pistol and two samurai swords when he took over the reins of BuCor, an indication that something was wrong with him.
Even after his suspension expires, Bantag should not be returned to his post.
Alarm bells should have started ringing when the Igorot man from the Cordillera region started exhibiting unusual behavior.
Lugging a machine pistol and two samurai swords when he assumed command of all national penitentiary facilities in the country was a sight to behold. But how could he use all those weapons at the same time when he’s attacked? Bantag probably thought he was Shintaro, a popular fictional samurai warrior featured in movies in the 1960s.
He said he would behead any prison guard or prisoner who misbehaved.
I admit to having been fooled when I learned how Bantag assumed the post of prisons director-general. I thought it was mere bravado; in hindsight, it was something else.
May tama siya sa ulo and he needs professional help.
The guy’s claim to fame was when he survived a grenade explosion inside his office at the Parañaque City jail, where he was a warden. Ten inmates were killed in the explosion; he survived by hiding behind a steel shield.
Looking back, we all know Bantag survived by design, not by accident; and that’s being kind.
He was able to wangle the BuCor position from president Duterte for surviving that grenade explosion. After all, there were allegedly notorious drug dealers among the ten inmates who died in the grenade explosion.
Now, there are reports pointing to Bantag as one of the masterminds in the assassination of Percy Lapid (real name: Percival Mabasa). It was Bantag, reports allege, that ordered Jun Villamor killed to silence him.
Villamor had expressed fears to his sister that he would be killed after he was identified by Joel Escorial, suspected gunman, as the middleman.
Escorial confessed he and his accomplices were paid P550,000 for the hit job and pointed to Villamor, who acted as the go-between the mastermind and himself.
It’s not surprising Bantag’s name has surfaced in the probe into Lapid’s killing.
Given his strange ways, Bantag was capable. But surely, the guy didn’t act on his own.
Who ordered Bantag to have Lapid killed? That is the 64-dollar question.
Authorities should have Bantag guarded 24 hours a day because he might end up like Villamor, the suspected middleman.
* * *
Under Bantag’s watch, the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) and other national penitentiaries were both hell and heaven.
“Hell” because as of September, 708 inmates have died this year nationwide. Some of the deaths were under mysterious circumstances.
“Heaven” because drugs, liquor and deadly weapons were smuggled into the penitentiaries, especially the NBP in Muntinlupa.
During a thorough search of the NBP ordered by BuCor officer-in-charge Catapang a few days ago, more than 7,000 cans of beer, weapons and shabu (the poor man’s cocaine) were found in the prison.
A total of P50,000 in cash, playing cards, mobile phones and laptop computers were also found.
Catapang said he was told that Red Horse extra-strong beer costs P1,000 each inside the NBP. The same brand of beer costs P50 a can outside.
How did beer, weapons and drugs get into the supposedly well-guarded prison facility?
Ask Bantag, who said when he took over BuCor he would behead any prison guard and prisoner who misbehaved.
It would now seem that Bantag was the most misbehaved of them all.
* * *
How did Jun Villamor die? The suspected middleman had expressed fears to his sister he would be killed after he was implicated in the death of Percy Lapid.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said that Villamor died of natural causes, meaning there was no foul play.
But one of the foremost forensica experts in the Philippines, Dr. Raquel Fortun, said that Villamor’s death was due to suffocation. A plastic bag was wrapped around his head, Fortun said.
A former NBP inmate, who asked not to be named, told this columnist that Fortun was right: that Villamor’s death could have been due to a plastic bag being wrapped around his head.
Villamor’s body didn’t bear any bruises, indicating there was no struggle on his part.
The former prisoner said that he had witnessed the “silent” killing of another inmate at the NBP while he was still there.
While the condemned inmate was asleep, his fellow prisoners wrapped a blanket around his body so that he couldn’t move. A plastic bag was then placed around his head.
The inmate died after three minutes, due to lack of oxygen.
Once the inmate was dead, a funnel was inserted in his mouth and another prisoner blew air into it. This made his lungs fill up with air.
Authorities found no traces of foul play on the dead prisoner and declared that he died of natural causes.
