On the night of June 29, 1991, Asuncion was supposed to have a sleepover with Jennifer at the latters home in Paraaque City. On October 1, 1996, Judge Amelita Tolentino admitted only 10 of the 142 pieces of evidence the defense presented. On January 4, 2000, the Regional Trial Court of Paranaque City rendered its judgement finding all the accused guilty as charged imposing a penalty of life imprisonment. Like Alejo, Herbas also at first instance identified Joel de Jesus as one of the gunmen during a police line-up but later withdraw his statement in open court. Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. In open court, he already said there were six, not four assailants; that it was two other gunmen, not one of the four present close to the car who pointed the gun at him; and he was not nervous but rather had the opportunity to see the faces of all the assailants facing him all at the same time. Cabanacan said Webb had entered the subdivision (where the Vizconde house was located) a few days before the massacre and that he even identified himself as the son of then Congressman Webb. The Vizconde massacre has been dubbed as the trial of the century as the accused hailed from prominent families of the Philippines. Massacre era. Episode on July 5, 2011 Tuesday after Saksi! The SC, however, held that by failing to prove the existence of a relationship between Hubert and Carmela; and that the lover that Alfaro claimed that Carmela had met did not come forward in public or in court, her testimonies about the accused and the victims were like a piece of jigsaw puzzle trimmed to fit into the shape on the board but does not belong because it clashes with the surrounding pieces and the lover was a mere ghost of the imagination of Alfaro, the woman who made a living informing on criminals. December 14, 2010:http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2010/december2010/176389.htm The details of how they were killed were grim. The court also said that if Webb was in the U.S. when the crime was committed, the Alfaro's testimony would not hold together: "Without it, the evidence against the others must necessarily fall. Rey and Jerry claimed they saw Webb playing basketball between the months of June and July 1991 during a league in BF Homes. She was the prosecutions worst possible choice for a witness. I told my family that I did my best. Your subscription could not be saved. Nephews had posted a banner declaring Truth prevails 20 years after and demanding Final justice for the Vizconde massacre victims, in apparent reference to government probers claims that, contrary to his alibi, released murder convict Hubert Webb never left the country. Tolentino also found it hard to believe that Webb was working with a pesticide company because he was asthmatic and allergic to various substances. She cited the testimony of Alex del Toro, husband of Webb's relative, who said he hired Hubert Webb as an employee at his pesticide company in California. However, keep in mind not to be vindictive. To support this, Webb presented a Certification issued by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service of August 31, 1995 confirming that his entry into that country was recorded. 3. MANILA, Philippines - A former policeman who was jailed for allegedly tampering with evidence in the 1991 Vizconde massacre insists he is innocent of any crime after being released from prison Tuesday. The men were released on Dec. 14 last year, after the Supreme Court dismissed the testimony of star witness Jessica Alfaro against Webb. This site uses cookies. Needless to say, were unpopular with the PNP and other government agencies that citizens transact business with. May I invite you to watch?). The SCs decision affirming the guilty verdict by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Quezon City on the Abadilla Five, the five men accused in the murder of police colonel Rolando Abadilla on June 13, 1996, is already the subject of a final appeal filed on October 8, 2010. It is time to heal the past. vs. Raul de Leon et. But big offenses, such as rape or attempted rape, should be filed with the police or the prosecutors office. Hong Kong After the Mass, VACC founding chair Dante Jimenez urged Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings against the seven Supreme Court justices who either voted to acquit Webb and coaccused or abstained from voting last December. InVizconde case: Jessica Alfaros positive identification was rejected because she did not meet the test of a credible witness and that what she personally saw must be believable, not inherently contrived. [18], In her decision, Tolentino described the testimony of defense witnesses as full of inconsistencies and biased. Alfaro said that when she went back to the house, she saw the bodies of Estrellita and Jennifer on the bed and Webb raping Carmela on the floor. After she finished the laundry, she went to the servant's quarters. The President has time and again said that he was very tired of running the country and, if he had his way, would have stepped down. Birrer said she had accompanied Biong to the Vizconde house to destroy the evidence and to retrieve Webb's jacket and the murder weapon. References: VIZCONDE MASSACRE: 20 YEARS, TWO FACES OF JUSTICE Report by Maki Pulido It is one of the most controversial cases in the country's history, the most shocking crime in the 90s - the Vizconde Massacre. [3], The Inter-Agency Task Force assigned to reinvestigate Vizconde massacre case formed 6 teams or 3 parallel teams to look into 3 sets of suspects linked to the murders. Another accused, Joey Filart also fled to the United States. The prosecution did not present him as their witness during the trial. The remains of his wife and daughters were also exhumed from their grave at Holy Cross Memorial Park in Quezon City and transferred to his grave. The SC rendered its judgment on the Abadilla case on September 7 and on the Vizconde case on December 14 of this year [2010]. [51] On March 18, Hubert Webb filed a lawsuit against Jessica Alfaro for false testimony at the Paraaque Prosecutor's Office. You are just a few clicks away from making [6][7][8] The suspects said they were tortured and forced to confess to the crime before they were presented by Filart to the media. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Vizconde said he was optimistic about finding more witnesses.. The Truth about Mendiola Massacre - Philippine True Crime Stories | Martin Rules. 127262 Hubert Webb, et al. Im still hoping for a miracle to happen. 3. Remember when I made the disclosure that someone is pressuring the justices to vote for a reversal? X' key to real perpetrators of Vizconde murders? Similar to the accused in the Vizconde case, all the accused in the Abadilla case invoked their defence of alibi. The court ruled that Alfaro was "a stool pigeon, one who earned her living by fraternizing with criminals so she could squeal on them to her NBI handlers." Fax: +(852) 2698 6367, Copyright 2023 Asian Human Rights Commission. The court also amended the award of damages from 100,000 pesos to 200,000 pesos, and also upheld the conviction of Biong as accessory to the crime "by abusing his public functions to conceal and destroy the physical evidence in order to prevent the discovery of the crime and by allowing the destruction of the physical evidence, Biong facilitated the escape of the principal accused. The 47-year-old Estrellita had 13 stab wounds. Webb presented certifications from the U.S. Immigration but he failed to submit as evidence in court the original copy of his passport with immigration entry stamped on it. Alejos testimonies in open court were also not consistent to what he had said to the police investigators immediately after the murder. Estrellita, 47, had suffered thirteen stab wounds; Carmela, 18, had suffered seventeen stab wounds and had been raped before she was killed; and Jennifer, 7, had nineteen stab . No. 121234 Hubert Webb et al. Carpio testified for the defense during the trial. 'Ms. Guillermo Lorenzo Guilor Eleazar, recently appointed chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), bows out on Nov. 13 this year when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 56. Alejo confirmed these two (2) as the persons he saw from his guard post walking to and fro before the shooting incident. [48] Other witnesses say Webb was in the Philippines at the time of the murders. They are Lenido Lumanog, Augusto Santos, Senior Police Officer 2 (SPO2) Cesar Fortuna, Rameses de Jesus and Joel de Jesus. No. Who does forget the heart-crushing 1991 Visconde massacre, with Jessica Alfaro standing as the star witness, whistle-blowing the details how these young men before, coming from our society's influential families, killed Mang Lauro's wife and his two daughters. When we die, that is when we will be given the whole truth May the Lord console you in all your afflictions, The priest said. Theyre projecting Digong as a feeble old man still seeking power. But feeling uneasy, she decided to go up to the stockroom near Hubert's room to see what he was doing. 5. Thus, it was not surprising for Alfaro to testify with great details in court. Similar to the Vizconde case, the five accused made a defence of alibi claiming that they were somewhere else on June 13, 1996 when the murder of Abadilla happened. The people urging President Rodrigo Digong Duterte to run for vice president in the 2022 elections are making fun of him. Lauro Vizconde on Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of the murders of his wife and two daughters at his residence in BF Homes, Paraaque City. 4. The Vizconde murder case, colloquially known as the Vizconde massacre, was the multiple homicide of members of the Vizconde family on June 30, 1991 at their residence at 80 Vinzons Street, BF Homes, Paraaque, Metro Manila, Philippines. Am I dismayed by the decision of the (Supreme Court)? A news report on Thursday in Business Mirror that headlined Senate grills defense brass on plans for EDCA expansion, sites raised much curiosity for its sheer lack of detailed information. Inconsistencies: In Vizconde case damages credibility, in Abadilla case does not. Nephews had posted a banner declaring "Truth prevails 20 years after" and demanding "Final justice for the Vizconde massacre victims," in apparent reference to government probers' claims . Alfaro, who had "practically lived" at the NBI's offices, would have been able to hear about the details, and gain access to the documents, without difficulty. [10] According to the footage of the trial, Alfaro had been able to identify all the defendants by their names. Don't miss out on the latest news and information. In a decision dated January 6, 2000, Paraaque Regional Trial Court Judge Amelita Tolentino convicted Webb and the co . Di naman ako puwede magtrabaho don (If that's the case, then I should have had a salary. Be consoled that the truth will always come out, Hernandez advised Vizconde. ), Among evidence that was not admitted by Judge Tolentino, was the note verbale from the United States Embassy in Manila claiming that Webb entered the United States in March 1991 and left in October 1992. Jubilation by the citizenry greeted the report of his appointment. He then hurled the little girl to a wall and started stabbing her. The fight is not over. Vizconde Massacre: The hidden Truth. Herbas and Alejo worked for the Abadillas as security guards. My program is the originalsumbungan ng bayan sa radyo(roughly, citizens complaint center on radio). Firstly, in the Vizconde case, the SC still held as credible the corroborating testimonies of the witnesses favouring Hubert Jeffrey who are mostly his relatives and friends in support of his defence of alibi. Credibility of a witness: In Vizconde case not credible, but credible in the Abadilla case. Pray to them. Alfaro claimed that Hubert was angry at Carmela thus raping and murdering her, her younger sister and her mother, to supposedly revenge her unfaithfulness to him. The Vizconde murders remained unsolved for almost four years, until eyewitness Jessica Alfaro, a self-confessed former drug addict, came forward on April 28, 1995, to shed light on the massacre. By her account, after a drug session with the group, Webb allegedly had hatched his plan to rape Carmela Vizconde. The ballistic test results also did not match to any of the firearms supposedly taken from the accused to the empty shells that were recovered at the crime scene. Sison was ordered to desist from further investigating that angle by then Philippine National Police Capital Region Commander Marino Filart after six members of akyat bahay gang (burglars) were arrested by Regional Police Unit in October 1991. The prosecution of this case only began in August 10, 1995, four years after the massacre happened, when Jessica Alfaro, an informant working for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), told lawyer Artemio Sacaguing, an official of the NBI, that she knew someone who had the real story behind the Vizconde massacre. ABADILLA MURDER CASE: This case is about the murder of Rolando Abadilla, a police colonel during Marcos regime, at 8:30 on June 13, 1996 at the Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City. The Vizconde massacre made headlines in the Philippines in the '90s and started a trend in filmmaking. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. [24] This was categorically denied by the Supreme Court as Justice Carpio had in fact recused himself from the case and was not going to take part in the deliberation. Webb's travel documents and other paper trail of his stay in the US are unreliable proof of his absence in the Philippines at the time of the commission of the crime charged. June 14, 1993 - Vizconde Massacre solved; 'brains,' three others fall Police finish investigation of the Vizconde case with the arrest of the suspected mastermind and three other suspects,. The CA in effect crafted and formulated the conjectures giving them the appreciation similar to facts offered as evidence where it had based the judgment. I can't express enough how sad and unjust today's story. Allan (surname intentionally omitted), stepfather of a 16-year-old girl who was nearly raped by a neighbor, went with his daughter to the police station in San Jose, Batangas recently to file a complaint. No. But I could not work there), Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption chairman. De Lima also said seven new witnesses claimed they saw Webb in the country during the months of April, May and June 1991. It is hard to believe this there is a record of supposed arrival from other country but no record of departure in 1991 or in any month of 1991, she said. God does not teach us to retaliate. The jurisprudence mentioned above that the SC invoked has not been equally applied. All of these had been applied in acquitting the accused in the Vizconde case, which is contradictory to its earlier decision affirming the conviction of the Abadilla Five. This policewoman is either ignorant of the law or plain lazy. al., 2010, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vizconde_murders&oldid=1138122178, Loss of DNA evidence not a ground for outright acquittal. I got involved in the case after Webb told me Hubert, whose name was slowly cropping up in news reports as a prime suspect, was in the United States when the dastardly crime happened. G.R. [4] In the Trial Court (People of the Philippines vs. Hubert Webb, et al., G.R. So how can such accused penetrate a mind that has been made cynical by the rule drilled into his head that a defense of alibi is a hangmans noose in the face of a witness positively swearing. Movie producers and directors rode the wave of public outcry by creating true-to-life films based on such heinous crimes. Night of June 2930, 1991 Estrellita, Carmela and Jennifer Vizconde were killed in their Paraaque home; Carmela was found to have been raped. VIZCONDE MASSACRE CASE: This case is about the gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman, the murder of her 7-year-old sister and their mother on June 30, 1991 at their home in Paranaque City, Metro Manila. Hell never return to the Philippines, said the Thai tourist whose cash was filched by Manila airport security personnel. In the Philippines in 1992, the Vizconde Massacre, which saw the murder of multiple women who had been stabbed to death, created an investigation full of problems. I incurred the ire of the citizenry, including some of my fellow columnists in theInquirer,for my defense of Hubert. Lauro Vizconde the husband of Estrellita and father of Carmela and Jennifer, was in the United State on business when the murders took place. The court considered the accused's "lack of interest in having such test done" in which they concluded that the state "cannot be deemed put on reasonable notice that it would be required to produce the semen specimen at some future time".[29]. I am not an NBI agent nor an NBI asset. It would be a serious miscarriage of justice and a demonstration of inequality before the law should jurisprudence not be applied equally. I found this As of yesterday, police had arrested and filed criminal charges against six fraternity members suspected to have beaten to death John Matthew Salilig in a twisted concept ofbrotherhood. Corona." On the acquittal of Lorenzo delos Santos, the accused whom Alejo had also positively identified, it ruled that his acquittal did not damage Alejos credibility; and his positive identification of the accused. In this case, the existence of an earlier negative report on the NIIS record on file concerning the entry of appellant Webb into and his exit from the US on March 9, 1991, and October 26, 1992, respectively, had raised serious doubt on the veracity and accuracy of the subsequently issued second certification dated August 31, 1995 which is based merely on a computer print-out of his alleged entry on March 9, 1991, and departure on October 26, 1992. [6], Alfaro's testimony coincided with the angle that was being explored by Supt. Apart from Alejo, earlier there was another witness, Merlito Herbas. After 15 years behind bars, Hubert Webb and 5 others in the Vizconde massacre case (Manila-Philippines) were released from prison on Tuesday. The SCs decision in acquitting all the accused in the Vizconde case has fundamental contradictions to its earlier decision affirming the guilty verdict of the accused in the Abadilla case. Therefore, the applications of the SC on evaluating the defence of alibi of the accused have not been equally applied in these two cases. Includes gruesome real photos from the crime scene. 1. As already mentioned, the SC concluded Alfaro to be not a credible witness because she did not meet these two criteria. But in the Abadilla case, the relatives and friends are not an impartial witness to corroborate the defence of alibi of the accused. InVizconde case: The SC has given weight to the importance of forensic evidence in a court trial.