Interpol red notice out vs ex-BuCor director Bantag, says Remulla
The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has issued a red notice against former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director Gerald Bantag, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said on Monday.
Bantag, who has a P2-million reward for his capture, is wanted for his alleged role in the murders of radioman Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa and Cristito “Jun Villamor” Palaña, the alleged middleman in Mabasa’s assassination.
An Interpol red notice is a request for all law enforcement agencies worldwide to “locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action.”
Mabasa, who had repeatedly criticized Bantag in his online radio show, was shot and killed on Oct. 3, 2022, by two men on a motorcycle outside the Las Piñas City subdivision where he lived.
On Oct. 17, confessed gunman Joel Escorial surrendered to authorities and said at a press briefing the next day that New Bilibid Prison (NBP) inmate Palaña hired him to kill Mabasa for P550,000.
Principals by inducement
Just a few hours later, Palaña was found dead at the NBP.
In March 2023, the Department of Justice indicted Bantag and several others over the killing of Mabasa and Palaña.
A resolution approved by Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento found probable cause to charge the BuCor chief and his former deputy security officer, Ricardo Zulueta, with murder on two counts. They were named as “principals by inducement.”
In April 2023, the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) ordered the arrest of Bantag and Zulueta for two counts of murder related to Mabasa and Palaña. Another murder case related to Mabasa was filed in the Las Piñas RTC.
Bantag, however, continued to elude arrest despite the warrants issued against him. The National Bureau of Investigation reportedly raided his houses in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, and Caloocan City, but did not find him there.
In June 2024, the Court of Appeals dismissed the petition filed by Bantag to nullify the murder charge filed against him. In a four-page resolution issued on June 19, the appellate court’s Second Division summarily dismissed his petition for certiorari, in which he sought to challenge the November 2023 order of the Las Piñas City RTC’s Branch 254. This was after the RTC denied his motion to quash the information and warrant of arrest against him, as well as its subsequent order denying his motion for reconsideration. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
