Suspended BuCor chief digging for Yamashita treasure?

JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Friday said the joint venture agreement (JVA) between the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) under suspended bureau chief Gerald Bantag and a private firm ATOM for the construction of a swimming pool inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City was “unenforceable.”

“It’s a piece of paper that belongs nowhere except the fact that, if he (Bantag) wanted to make a proposal, he should have been through the process given by our laws. Eh wala naman silang sinunod na batas at gusto nilang papatulan ko,” Remulla said.

Remulla issued the statement when his take was sought over Bantag’s claim that a JVA was entered into with ATOM for the construction of the pool, which according to the suspended official, was intended for scuba diving training of BuCor personnel.

This was echoed by Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Secretary and concurrent spokesperson Atty. Mico Clavano said the JVA was “void ab initio” (void from the start).

According to Clavano, then Justice secretary Menardo Guevarra recommended to then President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to disapprove the JVA for, among other things, lack of bidding and documentary requirements.

“There were issues about the nature of it being an unsolicited proposal kasi marami kasing requirements yun. There’s an unsolicited proposal subject to a.. challenge, but it seems as though it was unilateral,” he said.

“Well, this came out of the interview of suspended director general Bantag, no, on a certain radio station, and he mentioned something about a joint venture. So we looked into it just to make sure that what he was saying was actually true. And we did actually find a memorandum from the former Secretary Guevarra to the president then, PRRD, advising him that the joint venture agreement supposedly entered into between si DG Bantag of BuCor and ATOM was void ab initio,” Clavano said.

‘Looking for WWII treasure?’

Remulla, also on Friday, recalled that the suspended BuCor chief told him that he was digging the fabled “Yamashita treasure” right inside NBP in Muntinlupa City.

“That was supposed to be a treasure hunt for Yamashita treasure. Originally. I was told by Director General Bantag about it. And I told him to stop it. I told him to stop it.”

“It was supposed to be a treasure hunt. That’s what he told me before. Yun ang sinabi niya sa akin. Maybe sometime August or September,” Remulla said in a chance interview.

He told Bantag to immediately stop the digging because it was only a waste of time and government resources.

“Ridiculous nga e. Tsaka, you’re wasting government time and money. ‘Di ko alam kung government time and money ginamit niya pero ridiculous para sa akin,” Remulla said.

In his past interviews, Bantag firmly denied that the digging inside the NBP was meant to become a tunnel for escape.

Interviewed over GMA News’ Dobol B TV, Bantag, who was replaced by former Armed Forces chief of staff Gregorio Catapang Jr., disclosed that the excavation was to build a deep swimming pool to train BuCor personnel in scuba diving.

“Walang tunnel doon. Pero totoong may hukay doon. Pinapagawan ko yan ng scuba diving pool,” the tough-talking Bantag said, adding the pool was intended to train personnel for disaster preparedness.

Last week, Catapang, the acting BuCor chief, disclosed that they found a hole and tunnel in NBP.

According to Catapang, the hole was 200 meters wide and 30 meters deep.

Catapang replaced Bantag over the mystery-shrouded death of the middleman in the Percy Lapid slay.