What will happen to the only general (General Gerald Q. Bantag) who was hand-picked by the former President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte based on his unconventional method of running a place saturated with notorious people of various crime called the Bilibid prison? Will he be crushed by the powerful authority flowing from its very own family, the Department of Justice? Will he be ostracized by his brother in arm, the Philippine National Police? Or will the mercy of God intervened to bring him out from the den of lions ready to pounce at him at any moment from now? Will the cry of the people who saw great transformation during his reign in that hellish place (Bilibid) be heard and acknowledged?
This game of the generals started to come into physical form after the press conference where the gunman (Escoliar) of broadcaster Percy Lapid who was murdered on October 3, 2022 surrendered to the authority.
The gunman surrendered, so what's the fuss all about?
The gunman mentioned in the press conference that the command for the killing came inside the Bilibid Prison.
That after hours from the presscon, a certain man known for 3 names Crisanto Villamor, Jun Globa Villamor, and Jun Garcia Villamor found unconscious and died due to plastic bag suffocation (this is according to the second autopsy conducted by expert outside the 4 contesting power (NBI, DILG, PNP, DOJ).
General Bantag was not mentioned by the gunman in the press conference but later was suspected as one of the mastermind of the Percy Lapid case.
That after the death of Villamor inside prison (middleman on the killing), Gen. Bantag was issued a 90-day suspension without pay by the Philippine President BBM through Justice Sec. Jesus Remulla.
Gen. Bantag was criticized by Percy Lapid for his mansions and various cars. The definition of a mansion according to real estate is it has at least 5,000 square feet with 5 bedrooms. Now, does the RENTED house of Gen. Bantag fall on this category? His cars, yeah, the 11 cars presented on the Lapid Fire video, was it all his?
October 26, 2022 Senator Riza Hontiveros presented copy of recorded conversation of a mystery caller saying Gen. Bantag was involved in the killing of Percy Lapid. (this woman really... paki-authenticate muna bago ipublic,.. grabeng magmaritess 'tong lawmaker natin)
On the other hand,
Former AFP chief of Staff Gregorio Catapang Jr. was named BuCor OIC. (Catapang was the AFP Chief of Staff when the SAF 44 was slaughtered in the battlefield in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. One reason highlighted was lack of coordination (or deliberate passive response to coordination communicated).
Looking back to his statement about the abovementioned life and death situation on Inquirer.net way back eight years ago, He said "We came there to reinforce them but the reinforcement was to extricate them not to join the fight on whatever unit they were engaged." This displeasing statement from an AFP General of the Republic of the Philippine displays unacceptable reasoning of a supposed general. What were you doing when SAF 44 called for reinforcement? It would be understandable if you're delayed for an hour or two, but for one whole day? Where were you? You were just waiting on the side to extricate them because as you say that was your part! This act of a general is pure blunt cowardice! Tell this reasoning to a child if he will believe you? Yet you still have the audacity to accept the position of an OIC of a notorious place - the Bilibid Prison?
Personnel placed on floating status due to anomalies and linked to mess and drug lords were returned to their post by OIC Catapang.
Of all the 160 persons of interest, only Gen. Bantag's name was singled out. (With the aid of the sinner's testimonies) Why?
Another strong variable that could possibly lead to the suspension of Gen. Bantag is The firstborn son of DOJ sec. Remulla was arrested on October 11, 2022 for controlled delivery of "Kush" or hybrid Marijuana. It would be hard for the Sec. son to survive the Bilibid prison under the supervision of Gen. Bantag because this General does not give special treatment to prisoner, whoever son he may be.
In the passage of time, only one person has been mentioned again and again as the mastermind of the killing by the triumvirate (DILG, PNP, and DOJ) the 150+ other person of interest were amazingly evaporated in thin air!)
The pinning of the murder to Gen. Bantag was too fast. I didn't know how the magic happened (maybe the Bilibid Potter lend them their magic wand)
Weighing down the Actions/words of Gen. Bantag:
It was not a secret that Gen. Bantag turn down a 100 million offer of the drug lords in exchange for their comfort. This has far BIGGER monetary value than killing the respected broadcaster Percy Lapid, or killing Villamor inside his cell using pool of people.
He was consistent on his actions to give reformation to the whole BuCor entity to the point he was declared persona non-grata of Muntinlupa. (Who have the guts to do this? Only this general that was suspended from his post by a person whose son was arrested due to drug related matter.)
Many drug operations which is the coffer of drug syndicates inside Bilibid were reduced if not ceased due to the strict management of Gen. Bantag.
He declared a head on war with the drug syndicates who used Bilibid as their safe haven for drug related transactions.
Hence therefore, The death of Villamor is a superficial cover to a big scenario that plays in the mind of the generals involved.
The the minds of these generals do not match the level of their rank as generals in this case. Seriously! Their thought became shallow enough that somehow it can be branded as an act of stupidity. The PowerPoint presentation showed to the media is holistically full of downright idiocy. It is a straightforward path that says "because you criticize me Mr. Lapid I kill you" in its simple sense. The actions of Gen. Bantag says otherwise. His name will go down in history as the only general who gave his life to the mercy of fate in order to clean and straighten the crooked system in the Bilibid prison. This is a high-quality mindset of a general.
The suspension was done possibly in cahoots with the drug syndicates who benefit in the suspension of Gen. Bantag.
The disciplinary actions and development done by Gen. Bantag will slowly fade away in the eye of history since the person who was placed after him had already a history of,,,, my common sense say "negligence." (during the SAF 44 incident) and ano yung tanim tanim na yun?
That in order to protect the black ship son the righteous and just General needs to go.
That all the given conclusions can possibly be the reasons of possible repetition of events(44 lives perish in vain) that happened few years ago due to lack of coordination or negligence, not unless another force intervenes to outwit the deceptive game of the generals.
