The Muntinlupa City regional trial court (RTC) has issued a hold departure order (HDO) against former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) director general Gerald Q. Bantag who has been charged with two murder cases.
The HDO will be served to all airports and seaports to prevent the departure of Bantag and his co-accused, former BuCor security officer Ricardo S. Zulueta.
Both Bantag and Zulueta were charged for the killings of radio broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa and inmate Cristito Villamor Palana who had been tagged as “middleman” by self-confessed gunman Joel E. Escorial in the killing of the journalist on Oct. 3, 2022.
The murder case in the killing of Percy Lapid had been filed before the Las Pinas City RTC, which, like its counterpart in Muntinlupa City, had issued an arrest order.
The HDO by Muntinlupa City RTC Judge Gener M. Gito was granted on motion by Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors, DOJ Assistant Secretary Jose Dominic F. Clavano IV said in a statement.
“In order not to frustrate the ends of justice, it is imperative that an order be issued to prevent accused from leaving the country during the pendency of the instant case,” said Judge Gito in his order.
“The issuance of hold-departure orders is an exercise of the court’s inherent power to preserve and maintain the effectiveness of its jurisdiction over the case and the person of the accused,” Judge Gito also said.
“It is an exercise of judicial power which belongs to the court alone,” he added.
Since the filing of the murder cases and the issuance of arrest orders, nothing has been heard from Zulueta.
In the case of Bantag, however, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla said that the former BuCor official had intimated his desire to surrender as confided by Bantag, himself, to a Cabinet member.
But nothing has been heard from Bantag since then, Remulla said.
Remulla said if Bantag surrenders or is arrested, he will be detained at the Custodial Center of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Camp Crame in Quezon City.
He said the DOJ will give Bantag a few more days “to show up if ever he wants to surrender.”
“Otherwise, we will start clamping down. We will start the effort to arrest him,” he warned.