Airport finance officer slain

The assistant general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) was killed in an ambush by a lone gunman while on her way to work in Parañaque yesterday.

Lilia Diaz, 46, who was in charge of the MIAA’s finance and administration division, was being driven to the MIAA office at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport when she and her driver were fired upon.

Diaz died from a gunshot to the heart before she reached the hospital, MIAA general manager Edgardo Manda said.

Diaz’s assassination came a day after Manda testified at the Senate inquiry into the money laundering allegations against First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, during which Diaz’s name cropped up.

It was not known if Diaz was involved in the allegations. Manda ruled out a connection.

Diaz was shot at around 9 a.m. when her heavily tinted van slowed down at a speed bump at the corner of E. Rodriguez Avenue and Venus street in Moonwalk subdivision, investigators said.

A man carrying a jacket was waiting at the corner, whipped out a caliber .45 automatic and fired a single shot through the window of her van.

He fled on a motorcycle driven by another man who served as a lookout, according to a witness. He dropped the jacket while getting on the motorcycle, another witness said.

Hearing the shot, Diaz’s driver, Edwin Defeo, 29, looked back, saw Diaz slumped on the backseat and sped off to nearby Olivarez General Hospital.

The bullet hit Diaz’s right shoulder and went through the left side of her chest, police said.

Inspector Glen Tingson, chief of the Parañaque police’s investigation division, suspects the killers were professional.

"It appears the killers conducted a casing (surveillance) maybe about a month or two before carrying out their plan. The victim also died of a lone gunshot wound. If they were amateurs they would have made random shots because she was onboard a tinted van. But they knew exactly where she was seated," Tingson said.

Defeo said he always took the same route in bringing Diaz, who lives in Moonwalk, Parañaque, to work.

An airport officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the gunman may have just intended to scare her. He said more shots likely would have been fired if the intention was to kill, citing similar ambushes.

Diaz was convicted of alleged extortion in July, although she had been cleared of the same charge by the Civil Service Commission. Her conviction is under appeal.

Manda called Diaz’s killing "the height of cowardice that any person can think of" and vowed to get the "perpetrators of this barbaric act."

No one has claimed responsibility for the killing.

There were no immediate suspects but Manda said Diaz’s position, which involved hiring and firing staff, was "really sensitive."

"There were a lot of toes that could be stepped on" as part of her job, Manda said.

He said he and Diaz have been receiving death threats for the past year "from sectors who had wanted our cooperation on efforts to destabilize the government."

Citing recent ambushes on a Customs official in Cebu and another in Manila, Manda suspected there might a plot to kill government officials to paint an image of political instability.

"This may be part of rising criminality against high-ranking government officials as part of an overall destabilization," he said.

President Arroyo had previously ordered an investigation to determine if the rash of recent high-profile crimes — including the daytime Citibank robbery in the heart of Makati City’s business district last Aug. 26 — was part of a plot to destabilize her administration.

"The President has ordered a thorough investigation of this assassination to the end that the perpetrator of this dastardly act be brought to justice as soon as possible," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye told Palace reporters.

Diaz’s killing also "may have something to do with the ongoing reforms being made" at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manda said after a Mass for Diaz at the MIAA’s office at the airport.

The MIAA may have "stepped on" some people or groups who have lost or will lose money because of the reforms that include a plan for a government takeover of several airport services, Manda said.

He vowed to continue reforms, and encouraged MIAA personnel "not to be affected in their fight against some well-entrenched schemes within the system."

"(Diaz) was silenced just a day after she was named as one of my trusted assistants," Manda said. "If the killers of Ms. Diaz think that I and the entire MIAA will be cowed by her diabolical assassination, they have just made the biggest mistake of their murderous career."

At the Senate inquiry Monday, Manda was asked how a check for P5 million donated by former congressman Mark Jimenez to the President’s Lualhati Foundation ended in a bank account under the name Jose Pidal, allegedly used by the First Gentleman for laundering election campaign contributions for Mrs. Arroyo.

Manda is a former president of the foundation. Manda said he did not know how much the foundation received from Jimenez or if a P5-million check did go to another account.

It was opposition Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta who brought up Diaz’s name when she asked Manda about his qualifications as airport general manager.

"I wanted to show that Manda must be so close to Mrs. Arroyo and the First Gentleman to bag the plum position of airport manager, and he brought with him his own people, including Lilia Diaz who, I understand, was in charge of airport finances," Oreta said.

Diaz’s colleagues said she has been with the MIAA for over 15 years.

"I received some information about Manda and this girl that had to do with the money, but I did not bring that up during the hearing because it would have been unfair to them," Oreta added, without elaborating.

She said she has yet to verify the information before bringing it up to the attention of the Senate, which is currently investigating the allegations against the First Gentleman.

The political opposition has alleged that the First Gentleman was laundering millions of pesos in several bank accounts.

The President’s aides have alleged the opposition was conducting a witch-hunt to pull down her popularity ahead of next year’s election.

Mrs. Arroyo accuses the camp of deposed President Joseph Estrada of trying to destabilize her administration and of having links to the recent failed mutiny.

Estrada was replaced by then vice president Gloria Arroyo after being ousted by a military-backed popular uprising in 2001. He is currently on trial for plunder and other corruption charges. — With Evelyn Macairan, Jess Diaz, Marichu Villanueva, AFP, AP