Percy Lapid’s brother receives an unusual message from the alleged mastermind, former prison chief Gerald Bantag. Subpoenas have been issued for Bantag and his alleged co-conspirators, but their whereabouts remain unknown. Mike Navallo has the specifics.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. wants the investigation into the dėath of radioman Percy Lapid to continue even though both the gunman and the mastermind have been identified.

In an interview with Palace reporters on a plane en route to Cambodia, the president urged investigators to figure out how an order to kìll a journalist could have come from within the national prison.

“We’re trying to make sure that we know exactly what this is all about. The more we look, the worst it gets, this is too dėadly right now,” According to a report by the state-run Philippine News Agency, he is partially Filipino.

“We’ll just keep going. Until we’re satisfied. Right now, because we haven’t spoken to all of the named suspects, middlemen, masterminds, the investigation hasn’t been closed.”

The National Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the incident discovered that the kìll order came from Bureau of Corrections Chief Gerald Bantag, who is currently on administrative leave.

“He established his own fiefdom there in the prison. He acted with no fear of being punished,” 

Bantag, according to Marcos, routed the kìll order through six people, including inmates and gang leaders at the New Bilibid Prison, before it reached confessed gunmàn Joel Escorial.

Ricardo Zulueta, Bantag’s right-hand man and a deputy security officer at the Bureau of Corrections, is still at large and was last seen up to five days ago.

Bantag and Zulueta are facing two separate murdėr charges from the Department of Justice for the dėaths of Lapid—real name Percival Mabasa—aand inmate Jun Villamor, the case’s middleman.