Ex-Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief-turned fugitive Gerald Bantag was weighing his chances at getting a “fair deal” amid calls for his surrender in light of an arrest warrant issued against him, according to former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Meanwhile, three gang leaders at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City pleaded guilty to a lesser crime of accessories in the murder of broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa, and were sentenced up to eight years in prison by a Las Piñas trial court
“I think marunong ‘to si Bantag,” Duterte said in an interview on SMNI when asked if Bantag has to surrender to the authorities.
“I think he is just weighing his chances of getting a fair deal. Once he finds out that he can be guaranteed to a talagang (really) ironclad of preliminary investigation,” the ex-President noted.
Duterte appointed Bantag to the BuCor in March 2022.
Lapid’s brother, Roy Mabasa, who was at the court room, posted the conviction on the three self-confessed respondents on his Twitter account Friday afternoon.
The information was later relayed to ABS-CBN News by a source at the National Prosecution Service of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
According to Mabasa’s tweet, “Las Piñas City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Harold Hulinganga sentenced Aldrin Galicia, Alvin Labra & Alfie Peñaredonda from two years up to eight years imprisonment for their complicity as accessories to the Lapid slaying on October 3, 2022.
Galicia, Labra and Peñaredonda were allegedly leaders of three different gangs inside the NBP who, authorities said, helped facilitate the killing of Lapid.