By Junex Doronio
MANILA — “Crime does not pay” as the adage goes, and the family of slain hard-hitting journalist Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa has now heaved a sigh of relief when confessed gunman Joel Escorial was sentenced to imprisonment of 8 to 16 years by the Las Piñas City Regional Trial Court Branch 254 in connection with the dastardly killing of the radio commentator in 2022.
“Joel Escorial, who admitted to being the gunman in the case involving Percival Mabasa, also known as ‘Percy Lapid,’ received a sentence of eight years and eight months to 16 years imprisonment from Judge Cesar Huliganga in Las Piñas,” Percy’s brother veteran journalist and former National Press Club (NPC) Roy Mabasa said in his post on X.
To recall, Mabasa had earlier said Escorial wanted a plea bargain agreement with the prosecution for a lower sentence.
“Medyo kuntento kami sapagkat nagkaroon ng plea bargain agreement. Dun sa plea bargain agreement sinasaad na si Escorial ay magti-testify sa court pa,” said Mabasa in an interview Monday (6 May 2024).
He said Escorial will stay at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center “until the trial of Christoper Bacoto, another alleged accomplice, concludes.”
Mabasa added that the court ordered the counsel of former Bureau of Corrections deputy security officer Ricardo Zulueta to address the prosecution’s request for an autopsy.
Zulueta died at the Bataan Peninsula Medical Center last March, supposedly due to heart failure.
However, former BuCor director general Gerald Bantag, the principal accused in the murder of Lapid, remains at large.
(el Amigo/MNM)
