AWFUL

Philippine Prisons Boss Charged With Ordering Journalist’s Murder

Cops say Percival Mabasa was shot dead after he used his radio show to criticize his alleged killer.

Philippine authorities on Monday accused their country’s top prisons official and others of ordering the murder of a famous radio journalist who used his show to expose corruption. Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag was suspended from his duties after murder complaints were filed against him over the Oct. 3 shooting of Percival Mabasa. Authorities said Bantang and his deputy security officer Ricardo Zulueta used prison gangs to find a gunman to kill Mabasa, who used the broadcast name “Percy Lapid.” But after the murder, the shooter—identified as Joel Escorial—turned himself in and identified a prisoner who instructed him to carry out the hit. The prisoner, Jun Villamor, was suffocated to death with a plastic bag by detained gang leaders hoping to cover up the plot, authorities said.