The scheduled hearing of the slayed broadcaster Percy Lapid against primary suspect ex-Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gerald Bantag and others were postponed anew, his brother said.

The postponement according to veteran journalist Roy Mabasa, the brother of Percy Lapid, was due to the request of the prosecutors.

The brother said the hearing of the case against Bantag was set by the court on 18 March 2024, but was deferred.

“I was informed by the Las Piñas Clerk of Court that the hearing for the @lapidfire vs Gerald Bantag, et al set on March 18, 2024 has been postponed again upon the request of the State Prosecutors," Mabasa said on X (formerly Twitter).

Mabasa added in a message to DAILY TRIBUNE, “If I did not call the clerk of court I have no idea that it was already postponed. “Ang nakakainis pangalawang beses na yan ganyan. Nung una noong Pebrero, nagparesched din ang prosecution. They also did not tell me when is the next hearing.”

Prosecutors in March last year indicted Bantag and former deputy security officer Ricardo Zulueta for two counts of murder for the killing of Lapid and alleged middleman Jun Villamor.

They also found probable cause to indict self-confessed gunmen Joel Escorial, Israel Dimaculangan, Edmon Dimaculangan, and a certain Orlando for murder as principals by direct participation.

Villamor, died at the New Bilibid Prison on 18 October 2023, shortly after the self-confessed gunman pointed to him as the one who ordered him to do the “job”.

Initially, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on October 2022 released findings ruling out foul play in the death, while in detention, of Villamor, the alleged middleman in the killing of broadcaster Percy Lapid.

In a memorandum dated 20 October, NBI medico-legal officer Marivic Villarin-Floro, who is also the head of Task Force Villamor, said there was "no gunshot wound, no recovery" and "no apparent sign of external physical injury" on the body of Villamor when it was examined by the NBI.

But Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the middleman in the plot to murder broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa or Percy Lapid was killed inside the New Bilibid Prison.

“This is not an accident, not a natural attack but a planned death,” Remulla said in a press conference at the Department of Justice (DOJ) on 29 October 2022.

Forensic expert Dr. Raquel Fortun conducted the second autopsy on the body of Cristito Villamor Palaña also known as Jun Villamor and Crisanto Palaña Villamor and found Villamor’s body bore signs of asphyxia by plastic bag suffocation, pulmonary congestion, edema and hemorrhage.

“I remember Secretary Remulla asking me: Plastic bag? I said pwede, actually, pwedeng pwede,” Fortun said.