MANILA, Philippines -- Veteran entertainment journalist and lawyer Billy Balbastro died Saturday after a lingering illness. He was 67.

?In his columns, he didn?t focus only on star-driven projects; he gave due importance to the independent film movement,? said talent manager Ed Instrella.

?He?s a big loss [to the industry],? said fellow lawyer and MLR producer Joji Alonso. ?He was very supportive of our film ?Kubrador.??

Gina Pareño, lead actress of ?Kubrador,? said the last time she saw Billy was at his birthday party on Nov. 13. ?He said he was very tired. He had been checking in and out of the hospital. In a week, he?d be confined for an average of five days.?

Balbastro, according to friend Cloyd Robinson, was a bar topnotcher. He was a graduate of the the UP College of Law.

?But he never practiced law, he went straight to writing, which he loved. His first articles came out in Liwayway magazine,? said fellow movie columnist Alfie Lorenzo.

With Lorenzo and the late Oskee Salazar, Balbastro formed the ?Troika? clique that was among the first to go tri-media?print, radio and television.

At the time of his passing, Balbastro was anchoring the entertainment program ?Show Time with Billy? on dzMM, radio arm of ABS-CBN, and writing a regular column in the tabloid Abante.

Lorenzo said: ?He was secretive. I didn?t even know his exact age!?

?We never really talked about his ailment, which I heard, was lung cancer,? Instrella added. ?He was the type who would suffer in silence.?

?Whether it?s Christmas or my birthday, Billy always had the same gift for me?my favorite white salted eggs, a delicacy in Taguig, where he lived before his passing,? Lorenzo said.

A wake is ongoing at 154 ML Quezon St., Hagonoy, Taguig, home of Ed de Guzman, who said the remains may later be flown to Balbastro?s hometown in Iloilo.