FREE AFTER 15 YEARS: CONSCIENCE VOTE
MANILA, DECEMBER 15, 2010 (STAR) COMMONSENSE By Marichu A. Villanueva - After being jailed for more than 4,000 days, or 15 years to his reckoning, Hubert Webb, along with his five other co-accused in the celebrated Vizconde massacre, they finally stepped out of prison as free men and smelled the fresh air of freedom. They were all immediately freed from their respective cells at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City yesterday a few hours after the Supreme Court (SC) declared them innocent of the multiple murder charges they served in prison for these past 15 years.
After the SC handed down its ruling yesterday, Lauro Vizconde, the patriarch of the murdered family, wailed his heart out for the memories of his slain wife, Estrelita, and daughters Carmela and Jennifer. On the other hand, the respective families of Webb et.al., rejoiced for their vindication by the SC ruling, though in less hysterical passion.
At the height of his grief yesterday, Vizconde made another serious accusation. "There is no justice in this country." He also dared members of the High Court to help him look for the real killers "if they really believe" that Hubert and his co-accused are innocent. He decried what he believed was another example of "justice bought" in the SC majority ruling on this case. Earlier, Vizconde claimed that a relative of the Webbs among the SC justices, whom he did not name, was trying to influence his colleagues in the High Tribunal to vote for Hubert's acquittal.
We all share with the grief of the Vizconde family. The SC ruling yesterday has not given a closure to this case with justice deserved by the victims of this grave felony. But we cannot also deprive justice to people wrongly convicted for a crime they did not commit as in this instant case.
Beyond emotions, we join Lauro Vizconde in his appeal: the search for justice for his murdered loved ones must continue, not end, with this SC ruling.
But another trial by publicity like what had happened in this case would not achieve the desired justice we all want for the slain Vizconde family members. The likes of Dante Jimenez, president of the Victims Against Crime and Corruption, who mocked the decision of the SC should be jailed for obstruction of justice. The theatrics of Jimenez does not help any in the search for justice.
The wheels of justice grind slow. But it should not be a cause to short circuit and sacrifice due process by quashing the rights of others, too, in the quest for justice. Webb and his other fellow convicts in this crime of homicide with rape, have the right to appeal their conviction and they got acquitted by going through due process of law.
Then 27-year-old Webb and several other scions of affluent families were implicated in the killing of the wife of Vizconde and their two daughters on June 30, 1991 inside their house in Parañaque City. They were actually the third set of suspects who got jailed for this heinous crime after police and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) authorities bungled the handling of this case that resulted in the release of two previous sets of suspects.
The SC voted with clear majority in their ruling. Seven justices voted for the acquittal of Webb et.al. Four justices, including SC Chief Justice Renato Corona voted against Webb's appeal to overturn their conviction. On the other hand, four other associate justices did not participate in the SC deliberations on Webb's appeal for various reasons that could somehow cast color on how they voted.
The majority ruling, penned by Associate Justice Roberto Abad, invoked the cardinal legal principle of establishing "guilt beyond reasonable doubt" for the accused. Abad graphically drew parallelism of such "lingering doubt" on the guilt of the accused to a "piece of meat lodged immovable between teeth."
Such parallelism elicited a picture in my mind of how the police and NBI authorities assigned in this case practically threw Webb, et.al. as "sacrificial lambs" fed to the lions.
Out to satisfy public clamor for justice in the brutal rape and slay of the Vizcondes, the police and NBI teams on the case fumbled in their tracks to bring to the bars of justice the suspected culprits in this bloody crime.
Out to please their superiors, the SC chastised NBI for claiming having "solved the crime of the decade" when they came up with Jessica Alfaro. "Alfaro was the NBI's star witness, their badge of excellent investigative work."
But the SC cited that Alfaro turned out to be "just an asset" of the NBI who was coached to testify to match the NBI's own version of how the crime was supposedly committed by the "gang" of Webb. The SC noted it had a lot of "inherent inconsistencies" and thus, was unconvinced by Alfaro's claims as an eyewitness to the crime.
Then NBI director, and now Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, had and never believed Alfaro as a credible witness. "She's a liar," Lim said referring to Alfaro. A crack police investigator, Lim was the first to handle the Vizconde massacre as NBI chief in 1991.
Mayor Lim recalled then Sen. Freddie Webb called him up in his office and offered to bring his son, Hubert, who was working in the US at that time, back to Manila when the latter's name was being linked to the case. He told the Senator that the NBI would first check on the facts of the case.
As NBI director, Lim said, he was able to directly check with Robert Hefner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assigned at the US Embassy in Manila on the whereabouts of Hubert. The US State Department, headed then by Secretary Madeleine Albright, later cabled the US embassy in Manila that the immigration record indeed established the presence of Hubert in the US during the day the Vizconde women were brutally killed.
But then Parañaque judge Amelita Tolentino who tried and convicted the accused did not accept these offered evidence. When the accused elevated their conviction to the Court of Appeals (CA), Tolentino was already promoted to the Appellate Court. They lost their CA appeal in a split vote of 3-2.
Hours before the High Tribunal tackled the Vizconde case as the top agenda of their regular session yesterday, SC official spokesman Midas Marquez aptly described how the ruling would come out as "conscience vote" by each of the 11 justices. We could only pray and hope the majority "conscience vote" finally lead to the ends of justice that the Vizconde victims deserve to get.
----------------------------------------------------------
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2010 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
----------------------------------------------------------
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
FREE AFTER 15 YEARS: CONSCIENCE VOTE
MANILA, DECEMBER 15, 2010 (STAR) COMMONSENSE By Marichu A. Villanueva - After being jailed for more than 4,000 days, or 15 years to his reckoning, Hubert Webb, along with his five other co-accused in the celebrated Vizconde massacre, they finally stepped out of prison as free men and smelled the fresh air of freedom. They were all immediately freed from their respective cells at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City yesterday a few hours after the Supreme Court (SC) declared them innocent of the multiple murder charges they served in prison for these past 15 years.
After the SC handed down its ruling yesterday, Lauro Vizconde, the patriarch of the murdered family, wailed his heart out for the memories of his slain wife, Estrelita, and daughters Carmela and Jennifer. On the other hand, the respective families of Webb et.al., rejoiced for their vindication by the SC ruling, though in less hysterical passion.
At the height of his grief yesterday, Vizconde made another serious accusation. "There is no justice in this country." He also dared members of the High Court to help him look for the real killers "if they really believe" that Hubert and his co-accused are innocent. He decried what he believed was another example of "justice bought" in the SC majority ruling on this case. Earlier, Vizconde claimed that a relative of the Webbs among the SC justices, whom he did not name, was trying to influence his colleagues in the High Tribunal to vote for Hubert's acquittal.
We all share with the grief of the Vizconde family. The SC ruling yesterday has not given a closure to this case with justice deserved by the victims of this grave felony. But we cannot also deprive justice to people wrongly convicted for a crime they did not commit as in this instant case.
Beyond emotions, we join Lauro Vizconde in his appeal: the search for justice for his murdered loved ones must continue, not end, with this SC ruling.
But another trial by publicity like what had happened in this case would not achieve the desired justice we all want for the slain Vizconde family members. The likes of Dante Jimenez, president of the Victims Against Crime and Corruption, who mocked the decision of the SC should be jailed for obstruction of justice. The theatrics of Jimenez does not help any in the search for justice.
The wheels of justice grind slow. But it should not be a cause to short circuit and sacrifice due process by quashing the rights of others, too, in the quest for justice. Webb and his other fellow convicts in this crime of homicide with rape, have the right to appeal their conviction and they got acquitted by going through due process of law.
Then 27-year-old Webb and several other scions of affluent families were implicated in the killing of the wife of Vizconde and their two daughters on June 30, 1991 inside their house in Parañaque City. They were actually the third set of suspects who got jailed for this heinous crime after police and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) authorities bungled the handling of this case that resulted in the release of two previous sets of suspects.
The SC voted with clear majority in their ruling. Seven justices voted for the acquittal of Webb et.al. Four justices, including SC Chief Justice Renato Corona voted against Webb's appeal to overturn their conviction. On the other hand, four other associate justices did not participate in the SC deliberations on Webb's appeal for various reasons that could somehow cast color on how they voted.
The majority ruling, penned by Associate Justice Roberto Abad, invoked the cardinal legal principle of establishing "guilt beyond reasonable doubt" for the accused. Abad graphically drew parallelism of such "lingering doubt" on the guilt of the accused to a "piece of meat lodged immovable between teeth."
Such parallelism elicited a picture in my mind of how the police and NBI authorities assigned in this case practically threw Webb, et.al. as "sacrificial lambs" fed to the lions.
Out to satisfy public clamor for justice in the brutal rape and slay of the Vizcondes, the police and NBI teams on the case fumbled in their tracks to bring to the bars of justice the suspected culprits in this bloody crime.
Out to please their superiors, the SC chastised NBI for claiming having "solved the crime of the decade" when they came up with Jessica Alfaro. "Alfaro was the NBI's star witness, their badge of excellent investigative work."
But the SC cited that Alfaro turned out to be "just an asset" of the NBI who was coached to testify to match the NBI's own version of how the crime was supposedly committed by the "gang" of Webb. The SC noted it had a lot of "inherent inconsistencies" and thus, was unconvinced by Alfaro's claims as an eyewitness to the crime.
Then NBI director, and now Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, had and never believed Alfaro as a credible witness. "She's a liar," Lim said referring to Alfaro. A crack police investigator, Lim was the first to handle the Vizconde massacre as NBI chief in 1991.
Mayor Lim recalled then Sen. Freddie Webb called him up in his office and offered to bring his son, Hubert, who was working in the US at that time, back to Manila when the latter's name was being linked to the case. He told the Senator that the NBI would first check on the facts of the case.
As NBI director, Lim said, he was able to directly check with Robert Hefner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assigned at the US Embassy in Manila on the whereabouts of Hubert. The US State Department, headed then by Secretary Madeleine Albright, later cabled the US embassy in Manila that the immigration record indeed established the presence of Hubert in the US during the day the Vizconde women were brutally killed.
But then Parañaque judge Amelita Tolentino who tried and convicted the accused did not accept these offered evidence. When the accused elevated their conviction to the Court of Appeals (CA), Tolentino was already promoted to the Appellate Court. They lost their CA appeal in a split vote of 3-2.
Hours before the High Tribunal tackled the Vizconde case as the top agenda of their regular session yesterday, SC official spokesman Midas Marquez aptly described how the ruling would come out as "conscience vote" by each of the 11 justices. We could only pray and hope the majority "conscience vote" finally lead to the ends of justice that the Vizconde victims deserve to get.
----------------------------------------------------------
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2010 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
----------------------------------------------------------
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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