For allegedly stabbing two gang commanders last February inside his office at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, suspended Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag would be slapped with serious physical injury complaints.

BuCor itself would file the complaints, bureau officer-in-charge and former Armed Forces chief Gregorio Catapang Jr. told reporters in a chance interview the other day.

Catapang said BuCor would also file an administrative complaint against Bantag before the Office of the Ombudsman.

The Department of Justice is presently undertaking a preliminary investigation on allegations Bantag masterminded the murder of broadcast journalist Percival "Percy Lapid" Mabasa and NBP inmate Cristito Palana.

The criminal complaints against Bantag over the stabbing incidents and the administrative charges over the diggings at the NBP compound, among other issues, are being fine-tuned by BuCor's legal department, according to Catapang.

"We already forwarded it to the legal department for perusal and then hopefully we can file it as soon as they saw a case," Catapang said.

The complaints stemmed from the claim of Batang Cebu gang leader Jonathan Cañete and "Batang Mindanao" leader Ronald Usman that a drunk Bantag summoned them to his office on 1 February 2022 to inquire about an inmate who escaped on 17 January.

In their earlier narrative before reporters at Catapang's office, the two gang leaders said Bantag stabbed them one after the other.

Cañete said that Bantag approached him with a sword, pressed it on his chest and started cursing. He claimed Bantag got more angry when he parried the sword, with the then BuCor chief stabbing him on his leg.

Usman narrated that after assaulting Cañete, Bantag turned his ire on him by stabbing him in his right hand, paralyzing it.

The two also claimed that they were summoned the next day to Bantag's office and a certain "Zulueta" gave them P50,000 each to keep quiet on the incident.

Usman said they had no choice but to accept the money being offered.