As of yesterday, the stand of suspended Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag was that he would surrender only if Jesus Crispin Remulla would resign as secretary of the Department of Justice and take a drug test. This was a day after Bantag said he would not surrender because there was no court-issued warrant for his arrest.
The DOJ, which oversees the BuCor, is summoning Bantag for the preliminary investigation of the charges filed against him as the suspected brains behind the murder of Percival Mabasa, better known as broadcaster Percy Lapid, and New Bilibid Prison inmate Cristito “Jun” Villamor Palaña. Bantag is charged together with his trusted aide, BuCor security and operations chief Ricardo Zulueta, and 10 NBP prisoners.
Whether Bantag will ignore the subpoena remains to be seen. In a series of interviews since last week, he has denied ordering Zulueta to find a hired gun to permanently silence Lapid. This was supposedly after Lapid went to Bantag’s private residence and took video footage of the spacious house and numerous vehicles parked there – the subjects of the broadcaster’s critical commentary in his radio program “Lapid Fire.”
Bantag has pointed to a convicted drug lord, German Agojo, as the brains behind the murders, claiming that the prisoner is part of the gang of Jun Villamor and self-confessed gunman Joel Escorial. The only hole in this story is the motive. Why would Agojo want Lapid dead – and even raise P550,000 to pay for the hit?
More plausible is the “totality of circumstances” cited by the National Bureau of Investigation in filing the charges against Bantag. Probers said Bantag was reportedly enraged that Lapid was calling him the “Cinderella Man” for unexplained wealth. Remulla is correct in advising Bantag to just cut the “drama” and face the charges “like a man.”
Bantag should also advise his long-time right-hand man who is now AWOL, Ricardo Zulueta, to come out of hiding and face the music as well. This is if Zulueta, whose testimony can directly link Bantag to the killings, has not yet been permanently silenced himself.
It does not help Bantag’s cause that last week in his interviews, he ranted and flailed at Remulla below the belt. Bantag has said he had no intention of fleeing and wanted to clear his name. The quickest way to do this is to face the charges squarely. And to tell his friend Zulueta to do the same.