Probers urged to review slain OSG lawyer’s cases

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. urged the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police to review the cases that were handled by Assistant Solicitor General Nestor Ballacillo who murdered together with his son last Dec. 6.

Pimentel said the killing of Ballacillo was due to his persistence in unearthing the alleged irregularities behind the construction of the Ninoy Aquilino International Airport-Terminal 3.

"There are theories that say that assistant solicitor general Ballacillo was killed because he was assigned to track down the anomalous circumstances that seem to shroud the building of the NAIA-Terminal 3," Pimentel said.

Pimentel said Ballacillo was the counsel of the government in the arbitration cases filed by NAIA-3 contractor, Philippine International Air Terminals Company (Piatco) and its foreign partner, Fraport AG of Germany, with the International Chamber of Commerce in Singapore and with the International Center for the Settlement of Industrial Disputes in Washington, D. C.

Ballacillo and his son Benedict were waiting for a public transport near their home in Barangay San Antonio, Sucat, Parañaque on their way to the Office of the Solicitor General when they were shot dead by two unidentified gunmen.

The lawyer was also representing the government in the NAIA-3 case filed by Piatco before the Pasay City Regional Trial Court which is in the process of determining the just and fair compensation for the builder of the terminal.

Pimentel recalled that the late Judge Henrick Gingoyon of the Pasay RTC was killed several months ago after ruling in favor of the government’s expropriation of NAIA-3.

Aside from the NAIA-3 case, Pimentel also urged the authorities to look into the possible involvement of drug traffickers in the double murder case.

Pimentel said that he received information that Ballacillo was assigned to investigate some drug cases involving powerful people in government.

"No matter what the motive was in the killings of the assistant solicitor general and his son, we condemn their murders and call on the investigative agencies of government to act swiftly to look for, arrest, prosecute and punish the gunmen and the mastermind or masterminds who were responsible for the utterly shocking crime," he said.

Pimentel said that the NBI and the PNP should double their efforts to arrest the perpetrators of the Ballacillo murder.