CA junks Bantag’s plea vs. murder raps in Percy Lapid case

The Court of Appeals (CA) has dismissed the petition filed by former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Gerald Bantag on the murder charges filed against him over the death of broadcaster Percy Lapid.

In a 4-page resolution promulgated last week, the appellate court’s second division outright dismissed Bantag’s petition for certiorari assailing the November 2023 order of the Las Piñas City Regional Trial Court Branch 254 that denied his motion to quash information and warrant of arrest as well as the RTC’s order that denied his motion for reconsideration.

The CA cited a Supreme Court (SC) ruling that found that “only the [Office of the Solicitor General] (OSG) may bring or defend actions on behalf of the Republic of the Philippines, or represent the People or State before the SC and the CA.”

It also said that under the manual for prosecutors, all requests to file a petition for certiorari shall first be coursed through the Office of the prosecutor general for evaluation and approval prior to the endorsement to the OSG. 

“The said procedure along with the non-conformity of the OSG on the filing of instant petition for certiorari calls for the outright dismissal of the petition,” the CA said.

GMA News Online has sought comment from Bantag’s camp but has yet to receive a response as of posting time.

Lapid, whose real name was Percy Mabasa, was shot dead in Las Piñas City on October 3, 2022.

In March 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed murder charges against Bantag and former deputy security officer Ricardo Zulueta in relation to Lapid's killing with the Las Piñas court.

The court issued arrest warrants against them and others in April 2023.

In his petition for certiorari, Bantag argued that the Department of Justice (DOJ) did not have the authority to file the information of murder against him and that the court has no jurisdiction over the crime as it falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan since he was the former chief of BuCor. 

Meanwhile, Roy Mabasa, the brother of Lapid, said that the motion was “merely a delaying tactic” in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

“We learned that the CA has finally dismissed Gerald Bantag's motion to nullify the case filed by the DOJ against him in the Las Piñas Regional Trial Court. In short, the motion was merely a delaying tactic,” Mabasa said.

The DOJ previously said a cash reward of P2 million will be given for information on the whereabouts of Bantag while P1 million would have been given for Zulueta.

In April, agents from the National Bureau of Investigation raided the suspected hideouts of Bantag in Laguna and Caloocan City to serve the arrest warrant against Bantag, but they failed to find him.

Zulueta, meanwhile, passed away on March 15 due to heart failure.

The two were also charged for the death of alleged middleman Jun Villamor. An autopsy by forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun showed the remains of Villamor to have a “history of asphyxia by plastic bag suffocation.” 

The self-confessed gunman, Joel Escorial, meanwhile, has been sentenced to up to 16 years of imprisonment for Lapid's killing —VAL, GMA Integrated News