NBI arrests suspect in killing of Cebu lawyer

MANILA, Philippines—National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents arrested a suspect in the murder of Cebu lawyer Joey Luis Wee three weeks after the killing.

Ferdinand Lavin, NBI deputy director and spokesperson, said Fausto Edgar Benigno Peralta was tracked down in Laguna around 11 p.m. on Tuesday (Dec. 8).

Lavin and Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra did not elaborate how the suspect was located and the possible motive for the killing.

“We’re still conducting follow-up operations,” Lavin said.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ (IBP) Cebu City chapter lauded the arrest of Peralta and said it hoped that all those who had a hand in the killing of Wee are locked up.

“I am pleased to hear of this development. We now need to accord the suspect with due process, and we need to see to it that justice be served,” the IBP said in a message to INQUIRER.

“In the process, the IBP is ready to extend all its efforts and contribute these to see that justice be swift and not delayed,” it added.

Wee, 51, was shot by two assailants while he walked from his car to his office in Cebu City last Nov. 23.

Wee was rushed to a private hospital but died while being treated.

In an earlier interview, Rennan Augustus Oliva, NBI Central Visayas director, said the NBI immediately started investigating the killing of Wee.

Wee served as counsel of former public works officials in a case of graft involving the controversial purchase in 2007 of 1,800 lampposts for the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu which had been found to be overpriced.

He was also defense lawyer for agents and civilian assets of the NBI in Central Visayas who were charged with opening fire on a van carrying resort employees in 2002.

Col. Josefino Ligan, director of the Cebu City police, said Wee had a good reputation as a lawyer and was not on the narco list of President Rodrigo Duterte and law enforcement units.

Most of the cases Wee handled, he said, involved civil and corporate matters.

In a tally made by INQUIRER, at least 13 lawyers in Cebu had been killed since 2004, nearly all of them unsolved.

Edited by TSB