Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 15) — The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) will lead the search for former Bureau of Corrections Chief Gerald Bantag and four others after they were slapped with arrest warrants for the killing of broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa and a middleman in the slay, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said.
“Nag create na po ng tracker team ang CIDG para mag-focus sa manhunt operation against kay Gerald Bantag and officer [Ricardo] Zulueta para mas mabilis yung gagawing manhunt,” PNP spokesperson PCol. Jean Fajardo said.
[Translation: The CIDG created a tracker team to focus on the manhunt operation against Bantag and Zulueta to speed up the arrests.]
On Wednesday, a Muntinlupa court issued a warrant of arrest against Bantag and Zulueta over the killing of Jun Villamor, alleged middleman in the Mabasa killing.
On Friday, a Las Pinas court ordered the arrest of Bantag, Zulueta, brothers Israel and Edmon Dimaculangan, and an alias “Orly/Orlando”, this time for the killing of Mabasa.
The PNP said that it would be coordinating with the the two courts for the issuance of a hold departure order to ensure that the suspects would be unable to leave the country.
“Assuming naman na makalabas sila then we will be coordinating with Interpol for the possible coordination na makikita sa kanilang respective countries and we have extradition case sa country na yon then we could proceed sa extradition ng suspek for that matter,” she added.
[Translation: Assuming they are able to leave the country, we will coordinating with Interpol to see where they might have gone and if we can proceed to extradite the suspect from the country.]
Meanwhile, the Mabasa family urged the suspects to surrender themselves to authorities.
“Sana pakiusap nila ay sumuko na lang sina Bantag at ibang akusado para maharap nila ang kaso nila, ma-arraign na sila at matuloy-tuloy na ang pagdinig sa kanilang kaso. Kung wala naman sila kasalanan ay i-prove na lang nila sa korte,” Mabasa Family spokesperson Atty. Danilo Pelagio said.
[Translation: Bantag and the other accused should surrender so that they can face the cases, so that they can be arraigned, and so the cases can be solved. If they have not done anything wrong, they can prove it in court.]
The late broadcaster was shot dead in his vehicle by motorcycle-riding gunmen at the gate of his home subdivision in Las Pinas last October.
CNN Philippines correspondent Crissy Dimatulac contributed to this report.
