Free Percy Lapid’s son, Risa appeals to US

Mark Mabasa —PHOTO FROM MARK MABASA FACEBOOK PAGE

Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Friday appealed for the immediate release of Mark Mabasa, son of slain broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa, who has been detained by US immigration authorities in California since Sept. 21.

Hontiveros said the government should assist Mabasa, who, along with members of his family, sought asylum in the United States following death threats they received after Lapid was killed in 2022.

“It is unacceptable that a person who has been seeking asylum is detained without a clear reason,” she said. “Mark and other members of Percy Lapid’s family have been seeking asylum for a long time after receiving terrifying death threats here in the Philippines.”

The senator said she had raised Mark’s case with Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel “Babes” Romualdez, US Ambassador to the Philippines Lee Lipton, and Philippine Consul General in Los Angeles Adel Cruz.

She also called on Malacañang and other relevant government agencies to assist the Mabasa family.

ICE detention

Mabasa has been held at the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center in California since Sept. 21, according to his uncle, journalist Roy Mabasa.

Records from the US ICE website did not indicate the reason for his detention.

Roy earlier told the Inquirer the family’s asylum case was still being processed and that he believed Mark had a valid work permit.

Mark’s first hearing since his detention was scheduled for Oct. 2, according to Roy.

Bantag still at large

Hontiveros had previously raised the Mabasa family’s security concerns in a Senate press conference in 2022, when she disclosed that the family had received death threats from an unknown caller.

This implicated then-suspended Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag in Lapid’s killing.

Lapid, a known critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte, was shot dead near the gate of the subdivision where he lived in Las Piñas City in October 2022.

At least four had been convicted by a Las Piñas City court for being accessories to his murder.

However, Bantag, the alleged mastermind, remains at large, while his ex-aide Ricardo Zulueta, also a respondent in the case, died of heart failure in March 2024.

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