THE NATIONAL Bureau of Investigation did not mince words in saying that the Bureau of Corrections had been running a criminal organization under official cover.
Yesterday Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos announced the filing of murder charges against suspended Bucor director Gerald Bantag and others for the killings of announcer Percival Mabasa, aka Percy Lapid, and alleged middleman Cristito “Jun” Villamor.
It is a step in the right direction that the NBI is acknowledging criminal wrongdoing within a pillar of the criminal justice system – no less.
It is the ultimate betrayal of the public trust. The agency mandated to safeguard persons deprived of liberty through reform and re-integration is engaged in contract killing.
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Impunity has been unmasked.
In a previous column we noted that Bilibid has become a nucleus for criminal activity whose tentacles can deny us the safety of our own communities.
Among the notable statements made by the NBI is that Bantag, upon his appointment to the Bucor top position three years ago, brought with him personnel from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and appointed them to positions three ranks higher than their previous positions in violation of civil service rules and regulations.
That alone could have merited disciplinary action.
Bantag’s deputy security officer Ricardo Zulueta is now tagged as the one who coordinated the murders with gang leaders in the prison system.
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Bantag was appointed by Rodrigo Duterte three years ago to replace Nicanor Faeldon who figured in the GCTA (good conduct time allowance) scandal that rocked Bucor after it became known that rape-murder convict Antonio Sanchez was set to be released from prison.
Esquire magazine published an article on September 18, 2019 outlining Bantag’s brushes with the law prior to his appointment to Bucor.
Bantag was Parañaque City Jail warden when a grenade exploded right inside his office in August 2016. Ten inmates were killed including two Chinese nationals. Bantag himself was injured.
Bantag was charged with 10 counts of murder, which was eventually downgraded to homicide. He was acquitted in 2020 along with Zulueta who was among his co-accused in that case. The ground for acquittal was self-defense.
Prior to that, in 2007, Bantag was charged with attempted murder in Caloocan for allegedly trying to kill a teenager. In 2014 he was charged with illegal discharge of firearms after he allegedly fired his gun as he refused to pay a restaurant bill in Malabon.
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Despite the string of controversies that followed Bantag wherever he went Duterte appointed him Bucor chief. He made the appointment “in obedience to the rule of the presumption of innocence, I gave him a new job.”
Duterte’s statement was preceded by Senator Bong Go’s suggestion that Duterte hire a “killer” who could clean up Bucor.
With Percy Lapid’s murder now found by investigators to have been hatched right in the nerve center of Bilibid people are wondering whether Bantag’s appointment was a portent of things to come.
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Secretaries Abalos and Remulla must be credited for taking swift and decisive action on the murders.
To his credit also, President Bongbong Marcos gave the green light for a credible investigation by authorizing Bantag’s preventive suspension pending investigation of Villamor’s death.
The direction was set when Speaker Martin Romualdez led other members of the House of Representatives in raising reward money for the apprehension of Percy Lapid’s killers.
The resolve of this administration will be tested when it investigates the deaths of several high-profile inmates who allegedly died of COVID while in the custody of Bucor./PN
