GOVT PROBERS URGED BY PIMENTEL NOT TO ALLOW
ASST. SOL-GENS SLAYING GO UNSOLVED

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today expressed outrage over the slaying of Asst. Solicitor General Nestor Ballacillo and his son, Benedict, as he challenged law enforcement authorities to track down and arrest their killers and not allow this to be just another crime statistics.

Nestor, 57 and Benedict, 23, were waiting for a passenger bus near their home in Barangay San Antonio, Paraaque City last Wednesday morning when two armed men fired upon the elder Ballacillo.

After his father was shot, Benedict punched one of the assailants but he too was gunned down.

Pimentel said the gruesome murder of Ballacillo and his son is a senseless and extreme act of cruelty that deserves the strongest condemnation considering that the Asst. Solicitor General was a hardworking and honest government lawyer who dedicated his life to helping his countrymen in their quest for justice.

Asst. Solicitor General Ballacillo and his son were shot dead by criminals who roam freely, killing hapless and innocent victims because the government cant enforce the law. How tragic! the minority leader said.

Pimentel, who attended the wake of the victims, said police investigators are looking into two angles for the possible motive for the killing of Atty. Ballacillo.

The first is the possible involvement of a drug syndicate since he was investigating some drug cases at the time of his death.

The second had something to do with the controversy over the contract awarded to the Philippine International Air Terminals Company (Piatco) for the construction of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport-Terminal 3 which was taken over by the government through its power of expropriation. The case was also being investigated by Ballacillo before his death.

What makes the murder of Asst. Sol. Gen. Ballacillo more puzzling was that Pasay City Regional Trial Court Judge Henrick Gingoyon, was handling the Paitco-NAIA-3 expropriation case when he was murdered several months ago.

Pimentel bewailed that law enforcers are unable to stem the terrifying wave of killings and criminality that has contributed to the public disenchantment with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

What kind of government is this? A long trail of murders, extra-judicial killings, left and right. It seems the government is helpless in stopping these killings. And since its Gloria who is sitting in Malacañang , she is being held responsible for what is happening, he said.

Pimentel said that from his conversation with Ballacillos officemates, he learned that the late Asst. Sol-Gen was an honest, efficient and diligent civil servant who had remained humble even after he was promoted to higher positions in the Office of the Solicitor General.