It was just past 8pm on 3 October and the veteran broadcaster Percy Mabasa was on his way to record his nightly radio show. Every weekday evening, tens of thousands of Filipinos, many living abroad, would tune in to listen to his news commentary and sharp humour.
But on this evening, as Mabasa drove up to the entrance of his gated community where his studio is located in Las Piñas, Metro Manila, a motorbike began to trail him. Footage taken by a camera on the back of his car, and since released by police, shows two figures on the bike pulling up alongside him. Then gunshots can be heard. There’s a bang as Mabasa’s car slams into the vehicle in front. The motorbike turns and drives away. Mabasa was killed instantly.
Mabasa, who was better known by his professional name, Percy Lapid, spent his 35-year career as a journalist highlighting corruption among the powerful. His killing has amplified calls for the authorities to finally act on the longstanding and deadly threats facing media workers in the Philippines. It also brought to light serious allegations of wrongdoing by some of the country’s most senior officials.
The authorities say they have identified 160 persons of interest in relation to the killing, but they have focused on officials at the top of the country’s prison system.
In November, investigators at the Philippine national police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) accused the bureau of corrections chief, Gerald Bantag, and his deputy security officer, Ricardo Zulueta of arranging the murder through prison inmates. Charges have not been filed in court.
According to Eugene Javier, of the NBI, who announced the allegations at a press conference, investigators have uncovered “the unfortunate transformation of a pillar of justice, the correction pillar, into a deep, large-scale and systematic criminal organisation”. It was Mabasa’s “continued exposé of Bantag” that had driven the latter to organise the killing, Javier alleged.
Killings of journalists are not uncommon in the Philippines, but justice for such attacks is. Of the 197 journalists killed since democracy was restored in 1986 after the ousting of Ferdinand Marcos Sr, close to 60 have led to convictions, said Jonathan de Santos, the chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. “Often a prosecution in these cases is focused on the actual gunmen, the actual killers,” he said. It is highly unusual for the masterminds to be identified.
Bantag, who was appointed by the former president Rodrigo Duterte, has denied any involvement, and has filed a motion for inhibition, claiming department of justice prosecutors lack impartiality and should not be involved in the case.
He has accused the justice secretary, Jesus Crispin Remulla, of having political ambitions and trying to use the case to raise his own profile. Zulueta has, in comments given by his lawyer, also denied any wrongdoing.
Remulla said the allegations against the pair were based on the “totality” of evidence gathered, including testimonies by the self-confessed gunman – who alleged a prison inmate was a middle man in the killing – prisoners, Facebook messages and bank records.
In the aftermath of Mabasa’s killing, his family, including his six children and four grandchildren, have avoided going outside, fearing further attacks. His brother, Roy Mabasa, has stayed at a different location each night and travels in borrowed cars to avoid being followed. The family were offered police protection but declined. “At this moment, we don’t know yet who our real enemies are,” Roy said.
Threats of violence
Born in Manila in 1959, Percy Mabasa grew up under the rule of Ferdinand Marcos Sr, and he was a teenager when the late dictator imposed martial law, one of the darkest periods in the country’s modern history, when thousands were tortured, killed or jailed. Newspapers, radio stations and TV stations were closed, causing huge numbers of journalists, including Mabasa’s father, a radio commentator, to lose their jobs. Mabasa’s father left the city to avoid the authorities, and the family survived on the mother’s income from selling food at a market.
“It was probably those upbringings that made us aware of injustices and what is good for the country,” Roy said. Throughout Mabasa’s career, his belief in calling out wrongdoing never wavered, but it came at a cost. “In the span of 35 years, he was removed by radio stations nearly 100 times because of his brand of commentary,” said Roy.
Each time Mabasa challenged a powerful person, that person would call the station and ask for him to be sacked. “Libel was like breakfast, lunch and dinner for Percy. I knew the agony looking at his face. He considered it as part of the job,” said Roy.
There were also threats of violence – though over the past decade, he tended not to talk about these, perhaps fearing that his children would worry, added Roy.
According to Remulla, Bantag may have been motivated by one of Mabasa’s recent reports – an exposé alleging that an official from the justice department was leading a luxurious lifestyle.
“There are more damaging commentaries Percy made on other people,” said Roy. Many of his commentaries targeted Duterte, who was not included on the list of 160 people cited as being of interest to the police, said Roy.
A broken system
Since Mabasa’s death, calls for reform have grown. The killing has brought into focus the flaws in the Philippines’ penal system, including how a lack of resources and severe overcrowding can complicate relations between prison staff and inmates, creating the potential for exploitation.
The president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, while acknowledging that investigations were ongoing, accused Bantag of having established his “own fiefdom” inside New Bilibid prison.
After Bantag’s suspension, weapons, alcohol, methamphetamine and mobile phones were discovered inside the prison. It emerged that a large pit had been dug close to his quarters, and a menagerie of horses, game fowl and snakes was being kept onsite.
Bantag has told local media he was building a swimming pool to train prison staff in scuba diving so they could help with rescue efforts during bad weather. The horses were used to travel through the compound, while the snakes were used for pest control, he said.
He maintains he has been unfairly targeted. His fight, he said recently, “is for the small and ordinary Filipino”, adding: “If they can do this to me, then [they can do] much more to the small folk.”
Roy hopes that whoever was the real mastermind behind Mabasa’s killing will be brought to justice, and that his brother’s death will finally prompt broader action to protect journalists in the Philippines.
The deaths of all other journalists killed since the fall of Marcos Sr should be investigated, he said. Libel laws that have been used repeatedly to harass journalists through the courts, including the Nobel prize winner Maria Ressa, who faces decades in prison for her journalism, should also be re-examined.
“The death of Percy should be an eye-opener to all our politicians. There is no more time for us to put everything under the rug every time that a journalist is being killed,” said Roy. “Now is the time to act.”