BuCor chief cleared in 2016 jail blast

MANILA, Philippines — A Parañaque regional trial court (RTC) acquitted Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Gerald Bantag along with two others in connection with the explosion at the Parañaque City Jail that left 10 inmates dead in 2016.

Judge Betlee-Ian Barraquias of Branch 274 cleared Bantag and then jail guards SJO2 Ricardo Zulueta and JO2 Victor Pascua of 10 counts of homicide due to “insufficiency of evidence.”

Police said the inmates sought the meeting as a pretext to kidnap Bantag and break out of jail.

Bantag was accused of masterminding the grenade blast in his office when he was the jail warden. He was “seriously wounded” in the incident while 10 inmates, two of whom were Chinese, were killed.

The judge said that the prosecution “presented no other evidence except the bare allegations of the private complainants.

Barraquias noted that there were no other witnesses other than Bantag, whom the judge found “credible as a witness” when he testified.

Bantag used his service firearm to defend himself from the inmates when they shot at him and were about to throw a fragmentation grenade, according to the ruling.

“There is no clear evidence that the slugs recovered from all the victims’ cadaver matched with the service firearm of Bantag. What is apparent is that Bantag fired his service firearm when he was being fired upon,” the judge said, noting that “there is no direct evidence to show that Bantag fired his service firearm with the intention to shoot a specific victim.”

The prosecution also failed to present evidence of conspiracy among the accused and establish the jail guards’ participation in the incident, Barraquias said.

In an ambush interview yesterday, Bantag told reporters he welcomed the ruling and thanked God and the court for the acquittal.

President Duterte handpicked Bantag as the new BuCor chief in September last year as controversies piled up against then BuCor chief Nicanor Faeldon.

Duterte said he believed Bantag was “innocent” of wrongdoing in the jail explosion.