After Bantag meltdown, DOJ tells BuCor chief to answer murder raps at right time
MANILA, Philippines — Following suspended Bureau of Corrections Director General Gerald Bantag’s meltdown on live TV, the Department of Justice said Friday allegations against him in connection with the killings of broadcaster Percy Lapid and New Bilibid Prison detainee Jun Villamor should be answered in the right forum.
“There is a proper forum and a proper time to thresh this all out,” the DOJ said in a statement, referring to the process of answering the complaints against Bantag through a counter-affidavit. “This is a sworn statement answering all the allegations in the complaint. He will be given that chance.”
READ: Raps filed vs suspended BuCor chief Gerald Bantag over killing of Percy Lapid
Bantag appeared earlier Friday on SMNI, the network owned by controversial preacher Apollo Quiboloy, and angrily dared Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla to resign as he supposedly lacked credibility owing to his son’s arrest on drug possession charges.
SMNI had also given airtime for Remulla after his son’s arrest, during which he was staunchly defended and praised by Quiboloy.
The disgraced BuCor chief also denied involvement in the killing of Lapid and Villamor and instead shifted the blame on convicted drug lord German Agojo.
“Iyong pumatay kay Percy Lapid ay tauhan nitong Agojo na pinakuha ni Sec. Boying sa NBI (National Bureau of Investigation,)” Bantag said. “Tauhan daw niya iyong pumatay na si [Joel] Escorial at si Villamor na kaibigan niya.”
(Percy Lapid was killed by Agojo’s personnel whom Sec. Boying asked the NBI to fetch… The gunman, Joel Escorial, and his friend Villamor are supposedly his personnel.)
But the DOJ had this to say: “Let us not muddle the issue, let us not clutch at straws.”
“The Department of Justice understands the predicament of DG Bantag. His words and actions, no matter how personal and inappropriate, come from a misguided sense of betrayal,” it said, echoing Remulla’s earlier statement that “nobody wanted the evidence to point” to the BuCor chief.
The DOJ backed up the joint investigation between the Philippine National Police and the NBI and said “all the evidence collected so far” pointed to Bantag and BuCor Deputy Security Officer Ricardo Zulueta.
“There is no other motive here than to bring out the truth and reality. Of course, this will be done through our legal processes and with due process afforded to everyone involved,” the DOJ said.
But House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro (ACT Teachers party-list) said the DOJ should not just be dismissive about Bantag’s claims.
“The DOJ and the NBI must not turn a blind eye to the exposés of the suspended BuCor Chief just because he is now pointing fingers at the DOJ secretary for what is being done to him,” Castro said in a statement.
She added, “Pointing fingers at each other and showing off who has bigger power will not give justice to the victims and their kin. All angles must be investigated to make sure that the true perpetrators are held accountable for the killing of Percy Lapid.”
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