Asian Wisconzine Section/Heidi M. Pascual
Killing of Journalist Collateral Damage in Response to Duterte’s Drug War? (Part 3)
Editor’s note:
It is interesting to note that the focus of Philippine government accusation (thru the Dept. Of Justice) on the killing of journalist Percy Lapid is the suspended head of the Bureau of Corrections, Director-General Gerald Bantag, never the drug syndicate inside the prison system that wanted him eliminated. The connection between the gunman, the middleman, and their employer, German Agojo (the last two in prison for drug offense and murder of the judge that convicted Agojo) seems to have been ignored at this point. If the goal is simply to arrest and charge someone in relation to a journalist’s killing, then the goal will be reached easily with Bantag’s conviction. It would be unthinkable to consider Percy’s killing as just a “collateral damage” to oust Bantag, the druglords’ nemesis in Muntinlupa National Penitentiary. It would be a disgrace to speak against a dead broadcaster’s “revelation of corruption” despite lack of strong evidence of proof. It would be scary to charge the police of forcing the gunman to point to Bantag (in exchange for drug wealth) … but recent drug busts in the Philippines amounting to billions of pesos involved police officers, including a decorated police “drug buster”! It is indeed difficult to trust anyone in law enforcement when millions of money are used to entice them.
General Bantag and his deputy have been charged as the masterminds for the killing of Percy and Villamor (the middleman inside the Muntinlupa penitentiary). It seems the “evidence” solely accepted as truth was the chorus of inmates (in the Maximum Security prison) that participated in the killing of Villamor that it was Bantag, through his deputy, who ordered the killing. The same inmates even talked about “raising funds inside the prison per direction of Bantag” in order to pay the gunman who killed Percy Php550,000.
What? Is it credible to order people inside the penitentiary to kill someone and ask them to pay the assassin themselves?
Keep in mind that this prison system has been notorious for the country’s monstrous drug activities and that it was Bantag who put a stop to such criminal activities, including high-stake gambling, prostitution, and drug dealing. Would Bantag seek the help of inmates who hate him in the first place?
For the information of my readers, Gen. Gerald Bantag is from Baguio City, belonging to the Ibaloi tribe, and his records clearly show that Bantag has been a tough fighter in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. His famous anecdote was when a group of drug dealers went to his office and hurled a grenade to kill him. Bantag immediately grabbed the grenade and hurled it back to the group, killing 10 of them.
I am eagerly waiting for what will happen next. As of this writing, Bantag has been subpoenaed and preliminary hearings were set Nov. 23 and Dec. 5 to determine probable cause. The Nov. 23 hearing was postponed due to the wrong middle name of Bantag in the subpoena. It was clearly a delaying tactic by DOJ to give them more time to dig more credible proofs.
Bantag has announced that should a warrant of arrest against him be issued soon, he will not surrender unless his boss, the Dept. Of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, resigns from his post. Bantag has accused Remulla of closing his eyes in regard to the involvement of the drug lord German Agojo, who masterminded the killing of Judge Voltaire Rosales — despite being in jail — using the late Villamor and Escarial and is now under the Witness Protection Program. Bantag repeatedly asked: “Will I use inmates who hated me so much to kill Percy whose blog against me was nothing?” Bantag also charged Remulla of being a liar and accused him of being part of narco-politics considering his recent actions of releasing three drug lords via the Witness Protection Program of the DOJ.
Remulla refuses to step down from his post, of course. He has to be there to protect his son in jail I guess. And, according to influential bloggers, many of whom are Bantag supporters, Remulla must know the truth and the truth would unfortunately reveal that the killing of Percy Lapid was just meant to oust Bantag, imprison him, and when Bantag is already inside, the drug lords will have the biggest fiesta ever.
I am sorry that Percy Lapid was killed, not because he was exposing influential people for their perceived/reported wrongdoing. Percy was killed because drug lords wanted Bantag jailed so they can get their revenge; unfortunately, Percy’s killing was the easiest way, they thought, to ensure Bantag’s conviction, through the help of a justice secretary whose connection to moneyed PDLs (persons deprived of liberty) is now being questioned by many Filipino bloggers due to his actions.
