News Roundup 11 November 2022
Nov 11, 2022 • 5 min Read
Bantag surfaces and points finger at convicted drug lord | INQUIRER.NET – Beleaguered suspended Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gerald Bantag surfaced Friday, but not without dropping bombshells. Bantag showed up on television days after murder complaints were filed against him and others over the death of hard-hitting radioman Percy Lapid (real name: Percival Mabasa). In the interview, Bantag pointed the finger at drug lord German Agojo, claiming that Agojo is the boss of the confessed gunman Joel Escorial and supposed middleman Cristito Palaña (formerly identified by authorities as Jun or Crisanto Villamor). Escorial said he pulled the trigger that killed Lapid and surrendered to authorities. He was presented to the media on October 18. Palaña, on the other hand, died inside the New Bilibid Prison, supervised by the BuCor, on the same day Escorial faced the media. “Attention Lapid family, ‘yung pumatay po kay Percy Lapid ay tauhan nitong Agojo … Anong papel niya sa buhay? Tauhan niya daw ‘yung pumatay na si Escorial at Villamor na kaibigan niya, tauhan nitong si Agojo. Nakikita ninyo ba ang koneksyon? Ito ba pag-uutusan ko ba ito?” Bantag said over SMNI in an exclusive interview. (Attention, Lapid family. The murder suspects are people of this Agojo. What’s his role? Escorial, the gunman, is said to be his staff and Villamor is his friend, people of this Agojo. Do you see the connection? Do you think I can order this person?) But the suspended BuCor official did not elaborate on why Agojo would want Lapid dead. He, however, reiterated that he did not order the murder of Lapid. “Bakit ko papatayin ‘yung tao, dahil lang doon sa walang kuwentang hindi naman sa akin,” he said, referring to an exposé of Lapid involving him and the vehicles and properties he allegedly own. (Why would I kill that person only because of nonsense that does not belong to me.) Bantag then explained that he appeared on television to answer the challenge of Justice Secretary Jose Crispin “Boying” Remulla for him to face the murder complaints “like a man.” He also stressed that no warrant of arrest had been issued against him. “Wala akong choice kundi humarap sa media na sinasabi na face it like a man…” he said. (I have no choice but to face the media since they say I need to face it like a man.) “Wala naman ako, wala naman akong warrant of arrest pa, tapos sasabihin ninyo surrender? Pinagbakasyon ninyo ako ng three months, tapos sasabihin niyo nag-AWOL na ako? Anak ng teteng naman, Boying naman,” he also added. (But I don’t have a warrant of arrest yet, then you will tell me to surrender? So you suspended me for three months, then you will say I went on AWOL? Oh please, Boying.) Lapid was killed in an ambush near his neighborhood in Las Piñas City on October 3. His death sparked widespread condemnation and a high-profile investigation. Complaints were filed Monday, November 7, against Bantag and others allegedly involved in the murder of Lapid before the DOJ-Office of the Prosecutor General. Bantag is being accused of giving the order to kill Lapid and Palaña.
DOJ: Evidence collected in Percy Lapid slay points to Bantag, not drug syndicates | INQUIRER.NET – The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday said “all the evidence collected so far” in relation to the murder of Percy Lapid (real name: Percival Mabasa) points to suspended Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gerald Bantag and other respondents, and not to drug syndicates. In response to Bantag’s comments in a television interview implicating a drug lord in the killing of Lapid, the DOJ said Bantag’s words and actions “come from a misguided sense of betrayal.” “Nobody wanted the evidence to point to Director-General Bantag,” the DOJ said in a statement read by its spokesperson Jose Dominic Clavano. “In the words of Secretary [Jesus Crispin] Remulla, we hoped we could point [to] the drug syndicates as perpetrators,” Clavano added. “It was not good news when the evidence started to point to the respondents.” Bantag is accused of ordering Lapid and supposed middleman Cristito Palaña’s murder. The DOJ-Office of the Prosecutor General filed murder complaints against Bantag and others on November 7. “From all the evidence collected so far — the sworn statements of the PDLs, ballistics analysis, CCTV footage, the money trail, and all those other physical evidence gathered to boost the credibility of the statements — they all pointed to the respondents as perpetrators of the murder,” Clavano also said. The DOJ also urged Bantag not to “muddle the issue” and not to “clutch at straws.” “There is no other motive here than to bring out the truth and reality,” the spokesperson noted.
Truce ends Army-MILF showdown in Basilan | PHILSTAR.COM – Local executives assured Friday to help monitor the interim truce meant to stave off hostilities between the military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Ungkaya Pukan, Basilan. Four MILF members and three soldiers were Killed in the three day clashes in Barangay Ulitan, Ungkaya Pukan that started Tuesday. Basilan Gov. Jim Salliman, chairman of the multi-sector provincial peace and order council, said Friday he is thankful to the MILF’s Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities, led by Cotabato City-based Butch Malang and members of their Joint Ad-hoc Action Group for cooperating with military officials in forging a local ceasefire in Ungkaya Pukan. “Now we can freely extend relief services to thousands of residents affected by the conflict,” Salliman told reporters Friday. The commander of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Division, Brig. Gen. Domingo Gobway, representatives from the military’s Western Mindanao Command and Malang signed Thursday the two-page ceasefire agreement that obliged MILF forces and soldiers to reposition away from the barangays in Ungkaya Pukan where they figured in deadly encounters. Gerry Salapuddin, administrator of the Southern Philippines Development Authority who is from nearby Tuburan town in Basilan, said Friday religious and political leaders in the province ought to help enforce the ceasefire too. “There must be public cooperation in seeing to it that all of the terms stated in the agreement are religiously complied with by both sides,” Salapuddin, former chairman of the Basilan Revolutionary Committee of the Moro National Liberation Front, said. He said he will prod the present leaders of the MNLF in Basilan to help restore peace and calm in Ungkaya Pukan.
