PNP, NBI to file more cases vs people involved in Percy Lapid case —DOJ's Remulla

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Friday more cases are set to be filed on Monday against people involved in the killing of broadcaster Percy Lapid.

Remulla made the statement when asked about the mastermind behind the fatal shooting of Lapid, whose real name is Percival Mabasa.

“Nag-uusap ang National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police. They are talking between themselves about the cases they're filing because they are filing more cases on Monday, I think,” he told reporters.

According to him, investigators are still planning to talk to two or more people who are “very high in the chain of the Percy Lapid case”.

“Let the NBI and the PNP name the people that they want to charge before the courts,” Remulla said.

The continuation of the preliminary investigation on the murder complaint filed against confessed gunman Joel Escorial and his three other accomplices was conducted on Friday.

Escorial, who surrendered to the police, identified the accomplices as siblings Israel and Edmund  Dimaculangan, and a certain Orly, who are all still at large.

Lapid, host of an online broadcast program and columnist for a tabloid, was shot dead in Las Piñas City on October 3.

On October 18, Escorial was presented to the media following his surrender.

Aside from the three accomplices, Escorial also identified two middlemen in the plot to kill Lapid as Cristito Villamor and Christopher Bacoto, who were detained at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) and a jail facility under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), respectively.

On October 20, Remulla said Villamor died inside the NBP on October 18, the same day Escorial was presented to the media.

According to John Consulta's report on "24 Oras" on Thursday, a Bilibid inmate with alias "Jocon'' said in a sworn statement that a mayor or alias May-may ordered him and three other inmates to kill Villamor.

Jocon's statement indicated that it was he who held the plastic bag to suffocate Villamor. His three companions held the alleged middleman's hands, arms and feet.—Joviland Rita/AOL, GMA Integrated News