(Eagle News) — A Paranaque court has acquitted Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag and two others of homicide.
In its Jan. 8 order, Judge Betlee-Ian J. Barraquias also acquitted then-SJO2 Ricardo Zulueta and JO2 Victor Erick Pascua in the ten counts filed against them by inmates of a Paranaque jail when Bantag was jail warden.
Bantag, Zulueta and Pascua had said they merely defended themselves after they were attacked by the inmates and an explosion occurred on Aug. 11, 2016.
In acquitting the three, the court said the prosecution failed to establish the elements of the crime for which they have been charged.
The court also ruled the prosecution failed to establish preponderance of evidence that would require Bantag and the two others to award any damages being claimed by the heirs of the inmates. With a report from Mar Gabriel
