HEADLINE | LAPID SLAY | MANILA- Tracker teams ready to hunt down Bantag
(UPDATE) PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said a manhunt will be launched against suspended Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Gerald Bantag and his deputy Ricardo Zulueta once an arrest warrant was issued against them for the killing of journalist Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa and alleged middleman Cristito Villamor Palaña (previously identified as Crisanto or Jun Villamor).
“In the event that a warrant of arrest is issued, there will definitely be tracker teams to look for them. So far now, we are just monitoring. We are just validating information where they are,” Azurin said.
Memento Maxima Digital Marketing @The two were accused of conspiring to kill Mabasa over his expose on the alleged ill-gotten wealth of Bantag.
Villamor wound up dead on the day witness and self-confessed gunman Joel Escorial was presented to the media. He was allegedly suffocated to death by his fellow gang members at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) as part of the cover-up of Mabasa’s murder.
Both Bantag and Zulueta are facing two counts of murder charges.
Azurin said authorities were still looking for Edmon and Israel Dimaculangan, who acted as lookouts, and a certain “Orly/Orlando” who drove the getaway motorcycle after Lapid was shot dead.
He said the Police Security and Protection Group is ready to provide Bantag protection upon his arrest.
Bantag previously served as jail warden in the cities of Parañaque, Manila, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela, and was the head of the BJMP regional office in Mimaropa, before his stint as BuCor director.
‘Cinderella Man’
Remulla said that Mabasa’s “Cinderella Man” story that exposed Bantag’s alleged wealth was what pushed the BuCor official to order the broadcaster’s murder.
“[Lapid] made a story, the Cinderella Man, that video, that was it. The Cinderella Man came out on September 15. September 9, he went to his house to get photos in the village, and September 17, the plots began,” Remulla told reporters on the sidelines of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) anniversary celebration at the Diamond Hotel in Manila.
He claimed Bantag was incensed when he was informed that Mabasa was taking photos of his house in Laguna.
Meanwhile, the NBI said it is seeking precautionary hold departure orders to prevent the suspects in the killing of Lapid from leaving the country, particularly Bantag and Zulueta.
“We are working hand in hand with the prosecution so we are able to obtain the orders,” Eugene Javier, NBI spokesman, said.
“Technically speaking, there is no direct evidence linking [him to the murder], but we’re also using the concept of totality of circumstances,” he said. “In this test, decisions are made on all available information so it doesn’t mean that there has to be one direct connection to something. It could be understood that we focus on all the other circumstances of a particular case rather than any one factor.”
Javier said that it was inmate Denver Batungbakal Mayores that indirectly implicated Bantag as the mastermind behind the killing.
Mayores is said to be the trusted aide of Zulueta.
Based on the investigation, Javier said Mayores told authorities that Zulueta called him in September, saying there is an order “from high up” to have someone killed and that a certain “Tanda” will get mad if the order is not carried out.
“This means someone from upstairs wanted to have someone killed,” Javier said.
Following the order, Mayores contacted Alvin Labra, a gang leader in the NBP to hire a gunman.
Open to new possibilities
The PNP said that it is not discounting the possibility that bigger names could be involved in Mabasa’s slay.
“The PNP is still open to the possibility that during the conduct of the preliminary investigation and even the actual trial, new evidence might surface implicating other people in the two cases, in that case, we can file a supplemental complaint,” PNP spokesman Col. Jean Fajardo said in a television interview.
Javier said that based on intelligence reports, there are possible other masterminds in Mabasa’s killing, but he cannot divulge details of an ongoing investigation.
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