By Caryl Gonzales

The Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed on Friday that all the evidence they collected prompted the filing of murder charges against suspended Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gerald Bantag in relation to Percival Mabasa's killing.

This is contrary to Bantag’s claim that he is being oppressed to ease him out of the office and accused the justice department of wrongfully accusing him of the slaying of Percy Lapid and the alleged middleman in the slay case, Jun Villamor.

DOJ said Bantag’s words and actions came from a “misguided sense of betrayal.”

“Nobody wanted the evidence to point to Bantag. It was not good news when the evidence started to point to the respondents,” justice spokesperson Jose Dominic Clavano read the statement in a press briefing.

“In the words of Secretary Remulla, we hoped we could point the drug syndicates as perpetrators. It was not good news when the evidence started to point to the respondents,” Clavano added.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the Philippine National Police filed murder complaints against Bantag, BuCor Deputy Security Officer Ricardo Zulueta, and six persons who were imprisoned in connection with Villamor.

“From all the evidence collected so far, the sworn statements of the (person deprived of liberty) PDLs, ballistics analysis, CCTV footage, the money trail, and all those other physical evidence gathered to boost the credibility of the statements, they all pointed to the respondents as perpetrators of the murder,” Clavano claimed.

The DOJ spokesperson noted there is no other motive than to bring out the “truth and reality.”

Clavano also urged the suspended BuCor director general not to “muddle the issue” and “clutch at straws.”

Bantag is charged with ordering the murders of Lapid and alleged middleman Cristito Palaa. Last November 7, the DOJ's Office of the Prosecutor General charged Bantag and others with murder.