FILE PHOTO: Suspended Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director Gerald Bantag. INQUIRER / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) has asked beleaguered Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gerald Bantag to submit evidence to back his claims linking a convicted drug lord to the murder of radioman Percy Lapid instead of ranting before the media.
PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said Monday that Bantag must follow the legal process in making his allegations against German Agojo.
She said the Department of Justice (DOJ) needs proof from the suspended BuCor official before authorities can investigate the drug lord’s possible role in Lapid’s death.
“The opinion we are receiving is hindi makatutulong sa kanyang kaso kung sa midya po siya nagsasalita (it won’t help his case if he just keeps speaking to the media). I understand his predicament and his sentiments, but like what we keep telling the public, we will proceed where the evidence points us,” Fajardo told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview.
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“Kaya ang ating pakiusap: Kung may mga counterclaim o allegation si Bantag, it would be best to put that into counter affidavit. I-submit po niya sa DOJ para nga po makita natin na officially, ito iyong sinasabi niya at maimbestigahan din po. That’s why our request is that if Bantag has counterclaims or allegations, it would be best to put that into a counter affidavit. Submit it to the DOJ, so we can officially know about these claims and investigate accordingly.)”
Fajardo said that Bantag can officially express his side before the DOJ since a notice is expected to reach him and BuCor deputy security officer Ricardo Zulueta on Monday.
The two were accused of killing Lapid (real name: Percival Mabasa) and the alleged middleman Cristito Palaña (earlier named by authorities as Jun or Crisanto Villamor).
“Ngayon kasi, ang sinasabi niya lang ay all words na wala po siyang ibang ebidensya na isinu-submit pero kung isa-submit po niya iyan, kapag ito’y sa tingin ng PNP at National Bureau of Investigation ay meron naman pong basehan, open kami na magsampa ng karagdagang kaso at magsagawa ng imbestigasyon,” she added.
(Right now he’s just spewing words without backing them up. But if he submits something and the PNP and the National Bureau of Investigation determine his claims are valid, additional cases can be filed and investigations can be conducted.)
During a television appearance last Friday, Bantag unleashed a torrent of criticism at Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, branding him a liar, drug user, protector of drug lords, and a “disgrace” to the DOJ.
BuCor, which manages the New Bilibid Prison – the country’s main penitentiary – as it is tasked with custody and rehabilitation of national offenders or those sentenced to more than three years jail term, is under the DOJ.
READ: Bantag rants, brings up Remullson’s’s drug case
Bantag, in the same interview, also linked Agojo to the murder of Lapid. Both Bantag and the police said Agojo is purportedly involved in the 2004 killing of Batangas Regional Trial Court Judge Voltaire Rosales, who convicted and sentenced him for the illegal drug trade in 1999.
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But Lapid’s family called Bantag’s’ controversial media interviews a “diversionary tactic.”
“We demand that Mr. Bantag abide by the rule of law, follow the judicial process and present his side in the proper forum,” Lapid’s brother Roy Mabasa said in a statement on November 11.
Following Bantag’s claims, the DOJ maintained that all evidence so far collected by law enforcement agencies points to Bantag as among those involved in Lapid’s assassination last October 3 in Las Piñas City.