NBI, CIDG join Ballacillo slay probe

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police have joined the investigation into last Wednesday’s killing of assistant solicitor general Nestor Ballacillo and his son Benedict.

Southern Police District (SPD) director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales said they are now closely coordinating with the NBI and the CIDG in the case.

Rosales admitted that police still have no clear leads on the identities of the two gunmen who shot Ballacillo and his son in Parañaque City.

"We are still talking with Ballacillo’s fellow lawyers at the OSG and his family possibly to get a clear picture as to the motive on his slaying," Rosales said.

Rosales said lawyer Rommel Vallejo of the NBI National Capital Region (NCR) and Superintendent Bernard Tambaoan, of the CIDG have joined the effort to identify and track down the killers.

"We will be exchanging information we gathered until we crack the case," he said.

Rosales released yesterday the police sketches of the assailants based on eyewitness accounts.

One of the gunmen was estimated to be 24 to 27 years of age, 5’4" to 5’6" in height, muscularly built and dark complexioned.

The other was medium-built, 22 to 24 years in age, 5’2" to 5’3" in height and fair complexioned.

Investigators hope that the sketches would help lead authorities to the killers.

Parañaque police headed by Superintendent Ronald Estilles are conducting a massive manhunt, Rosales said.

Ballacillo’s wife, Lourdes, said her husband and her son left the house at around 6:30 a.m. on a tricycle bound for Sucat to catch an OSG shuttle bus going to Subic, where Ballacillo was scheduled to attend a conference.

After making sure that their targets were dead, the gunmen grabbed Ballacillo’s backpack containing documents and his wallet loaded with P1,000 in cash before fleeing towards Dr. A. Santos Ave. The robbers left behind Ballacillo’s Nokia 9500 mobile phone.

However, investigators are ruling out robbery as the motive.

Ballacillo is one of the OSG lawyers handling the long-running dispute over the new terminal of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and ill-gotten wealth cases against the Marcoses.

"We are looking into the Piatco and Marcos ill-gotten wealth angle. But we have no evidence on hand as yet to support our suspicion," said Rosales.

Ballacillo is the second official linked to the Piatco case, which involves the German company Fraport, to be killed.

Ballacillo has been arguing the government’s case in a legal battle over a terminal built by a consortium of Fraport AG and its Filipino partners in Philippine International Air Terminals Co. (Piatco).

In December 2005, Pasay City Regional Trial Court Judge Henrick Gingoyon — who had ordered the government to pay an initial P3 billion for the terminal — was ambushed and killed.

The $650-million terminal was built under a deal with the government in 1998.

But after President Arroyo came to office, she revoked the contract in 2002, citing what her advisers said were terms that were unfavorable to the government.

The government has since taken on the terminal, although a Pasay court has ordered it to pay Piatco compensation of an initial P3 billion.