LINGAYEN–The police task force investigating the murder of lawyer Conrado Soriano Jr., alias Pacpac, is now looking into the business angle as the possible motive.

Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez, police provincial director of Pangasinan and the overall commanding officer of the task force, said initial evidence indicate that an “unfulfilled obligation” to a still unnamed client may have led to the gunslaying of the lawyer from San Carlos City.

Soriano was gunned down with a caliber .45 last Monday in broad daylight by two still unidentified men riding in motorcycle.

Nerez said initial investigation showed that Soriano 54, a popular defense lawyer who handled several sensational crimes in this city and other towns, had been receiving death threats.

Nerez said politics is another angle being looked into.

Soriano served as the lawyer of his cousins, defeated mayoralty candidate Douglas Soriano and his younger brother, Gallant Soriano, who also ran and lost for a congressional seat in the May elections.

Wilhelm Soriano, another brother of Douglas and Gallant, in a text message to The PUNCH, called for calm and asked the people not to jump into unfounded conclusions.

He said they trust the police in carrying out its investigative duties.

“We are committed to ferret out the truth to help the bereaved family get justice,” Nerez said.

IBP

Meanwhile, the president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) has denounced the murder, calling it a “senseless killing”

Lawyer Feliciano Bautista, a native of Sta. Barbara, told The PUNCH in a phone interview, “This is a bad precedent and it sends a chilling message to all lawyers.”

Bautista also said the crime is an indication of a breakdown in the peace and order situation in the country.

“If lawyers can be killed just like that, how much more with ordinary citizens?” he said. #

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