EDITORIAL - Come out, face the charges

Neither Gerald Bantag nor his long-time trusted aide, Ricardo Zulueta could be found yesterday by law enforcers who tried to serve arrest warrants for the two top former corrections officials at their listed home addresses.

The warrants were issued by the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 206 in connection with the murder of Cristito “Jun” Villamor, an inmate in the New Bilibid Prison who allegedly served as the middleman in the contract to kill broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa in October last year.

Last month, Bantag was formally sacked as director of the Bureau of Corrections. Zulueta, his aide since their days with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, stopped reporting for work as BuCor deputy for security as soon as they were implicated in the deaths of Lapid and Villamor. Zulueta’s whereabouts are unknown; there are fears that he might have been permanently silenced.

Bantag, who has filed a counter-affidavit denying all the accusations against him, went to Baguio City where he is known to have supporters, and has said he is not in hiding. RTC Judge Gener Gito set no bail in the warrant dated April 12, which could be the reason the usually voluble Bantag can no longer be reached. Still, the quickest way for him to prove his professed innocence, and for the truth to come out, is for him to emerge and face the legal process.

Video footage showed Lapid being gunned down near his home in Las Piñas on Oct. 3. One of the gunmen, Jose Escorial, surrendered after his enhanced image from the video was circulated nationwide. Escorial tagged Villamor as the middleman, but even before police could get custody of the inmate, he was found dead in the NBP, with BuCor officials initially claiming he had died of natural causes.

An autopsy conducted by forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun, however, showed that Villamor was asphyxiated to death with a plastic bag placed over his head. Other NBP inmates later implicated Zulueta in the alleged plot to get hired guns to kill Lapid.

Government prosecutors have said they have a strong case against Bantag and Zulueta. If Bantag says he is innocent, the quickest way to acquittal is to face the charges squarely. And he should advise his aide Zulueta to do the same.