Pacquiao urged to surrender ex-security aide linked in media slay

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines—The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines urged Sarangani Representative Manny Pacquiao to surrender a former security aide implicated in the 2004 murder of a local broadcaster.

“We would like to remind the congressman that he is still morally obliged to effect the surrender of William Bael, named suspect in the killing of Jonathan Abayon in 2004,” Edwin Espejo of NUJP General Santos City said.

In 2004, Super Radyo reporter Jonathan Abayon was shot and killed moments after leaving the old house of Pacquiao.  Bael, one of the boxing superstar’s former security escorts, was implicated in the killing.

Bael had amicably settled the civil aspect of the case with the Abayon family by paying P200,000.

Lawyer Franklin Gacal, now Pacquiao’s chief of staff, was the one who worked out the settlement between Bael and the Abayon family.

Espejo said the civil aspect might have been settled but Bael is still facing criminal charges for Abayon’s death.

As this developed, Pacquiao urged the police and the Department of Justice  to conduct an in-depth probe to determine the motive and the identity of the killers behind the January 5 murder of General Santos newspaper editor Christopher Guarin.

Espejo said the NUJP welcomes “any help that would expedite the solving of the slaying of Chris Guarin.”

Reports from Charlie Señase, Edwin Fernandez and Aquiles Zonio, Inquirer Mindanao