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. [23] On November 26, 2010, Lauro Vizconde voiced his concern to media about the purported lobbying of Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio for the reversal of the guilty verdict. The AHRC urges the SC to thoroughly review the pending final appeal of the accused in the Abadilla case. All of us who have cases in court, dont we realize that if your opponent has money, brace yourself. In a 38-page strongly-worded decision promulgated on Tuesday, the . Birrer said she had accompanied Biong to the Vizconde house to destroy the evidence and to retrieve Webb's jacket and the murder weapon. a contribution to Human Rights work, Asian Human Rights Commission The unconstitutionality of prior restraint. The High Court put to question the quality of the testamentary evidence furnished by the witnesses. 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. This was a case that was solved nine years after the murders and then unsolved 10 years later. Inconsistencies: In Vizconde case damages credibility, in Abadilla case does not. Fax: +(852) 2698 6367, Copyright 2023 Asian Human Rights Commission. Be consoled that the truth will always come out, Hernandez advised Vizconde. [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. 2. A police officer, Gerardo Biong, has also been charged for destroying the evidence at the crime scene. Like Herbas, court records had also shown that Alejo has been receiving money and free accommodation from the Abadillas. The RTC, however, acquitted Delos Santos despite being positively identified also by Alejo as one of those who was present at the crime scene. The court also said that it was "possible for Alfaro to lie" on the details of the case. The court argued that the cited case has been superseded by Arizona v. Youngblood, "where the U.S. Supreme Court held that due process does not require the State to preserve the semen specimen although it might be useful to the accused unless the latter is able to show bad faith on the part of the prosecution or the police". The Vizconde massacre made headlines in the Philippines in the '90s and started a trend in filmmaking. Webb wanted Alfaro, the then-girlfriend of one of the accused men, Peter Estrada, to join them because Estrellita Vizconde only allowed her daughter to go out and entertain female visitors. It defended the attack on Alejos credibility, for example, his inconsistencies on the number of gunmen, arguing that this had already been explained by Alejo during cross-examination by correcting his earlier statement and that the affidavits, being ex-parte, are almost always incomplete and often inaccurate, but do not really detract from the credibility of witnesses. Philstar Global Corp. All Rights Reserved. Nine years later, still no clarity on EDCA sites. 185123/G.R. ), Moreover, Judge Tolentino also denied Webb's request to subject semen samples to DNA testing on the belief that the samples may no longer be intact. Firstly, the SC held Alfaro was not a credible witness. Webb's reliance on the presumption of regularity of official functions, stressing the fact that the US-INS certifications are official documents, is misplaced. [2] Alfaro said that policeman Gerardo Biong "was instructed by Webb, in my presence, to take care of the house where the incident happened". Massacre era. 16:53. She added that suspect Miguel Rodriguez warned her to "shut up or you're gonna get killed" in the same disco on April 8, 1995, prompting her to voluntarily submit herself to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for protection. This site uses cookies. Nos. Alfaro testified that as Webb followed Carmela into the dining room, she decided to step outside for a smoke. The other accused were Artemio Dong Ventura, Michael A. Gatchalian, Hospicio Pyke Fernandez, Peter Estrada, Miguel Ging Rodriguez, and Joey Filart. The public and the media continue to watch as the years go by . Their claims were corroborated by witnesses who are disinterested parties, their relatives and friends and documentary evidence. She observed Hubert was quite irritated, uneasy, and walked to and fro inside his room. 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. 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. Shades of what happened in the 2004 elections, when a national official was paid a huge sum to run under a political party. :Isumbongwill make a comeback on PTV-4 on June 12, 2021. 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. Knowing this, I cannot but hesitate to swallow everything that Alejo said at the trial. Biong was released from jail on November 30, 2010, after serving his sentence. He said that he heard Hubert Webb quarreling with another young looking customer. TV-14. You will regret it.[58][59] Jack, a village security guard who kept records of the village where Webb lived said he saw Hubert Webb during the time of the massacre. This was how Lauro Vizcondes relatives summed it up on Thursday night after a Mass marking the 20th anniversary of the death of his wife Estrellita and daughters Carmela and Jennifer. 1. People cried for justice for the Vizcondes and one of the suspects was Hubert Webb, son of then Paraaque congressman Freddie Webb, who later became a senator. due to "overwhelming evidence that showed Webb and the other accused had conspired to rape Carmela and, in the process, kill her and the rest of the family." Webbs co-accused, Antonio Lejano, is a son of a known singer and celebrity. [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. [29] For example, I was the first one to report the shooting of 16-year-old Maureen Hultman and her boyfriend by the son of former chief justice Claudio Teehankee in 1991 in my column at theInquirer, because the girls stepfather, Anders, a Swede, came to myIsumbongoffice at Radyo Veritas. Pitong, an electrician who since 1982, already knew the Webb family claimed he saw a laundry woman wash a bloodied T-shirt on the morning of the crime. I told my family that I did my best. [12] On July 24, 1997, the Supreme Court noted that Tolentino erred when she refused to admit the 132 pieces of evidence presented by the defense, although these were later admitted in court through an order issued by Tolentino.[12][16]. White was mistaken in saying that Gatchalian and company went in and out of the gated community many times, since they only entered once. The filming location took place in the actual home of the Vizconde's where the massacre took place on June 30, 1991. Envy aliens who can avoid PH; pity Pinoys who are stuck here. Manila Times Special Report on the Vizconde Case, G.R. 132577 People of the Philippines vs. Hubert Jeffrey P. Webb, 1999, G.R. In rejecting questions to Alejos credibility, the SC affirmed the CAs ruling that the credible testimony of a lone witness(es) assumes more weight when there is no showing that he was actuated by improper motive to testify falsely against the accused, as in the case of Freddie Alejo. Reporters jostled with Vizcondes relatives and friends in his garage, where Fr. But Villaramas opinion was not considered by the SC in their majority decision. Alejo confirmed these two (2) as the persons he saw from his guard post walking to and fro before the shooting incident. Lorenzo delos Santos was acquitted due to lack of evidence, but the RTC, the CA and the SC ignored that fact that the same positive identification it invoked in convicting the Abadilla Five came from exactly the same testimonies that have been used to acquit Delos Santos. 176864. The SC did not apply the two tests it invoked on the Vizconde case before accepting the positive identification of Alejo as credible, and him as a credible witness. Jennifer woke up and, seeing Webb violating her sister, jumped on him and bit him. The lead suspect was Hubert Webb whose father, Freddie Webb was famous as an actor, former basketball player, and Paraaque congressman at the time of the murders. TRUTH OUT, HEALING BEGINS. The court said the "portion of Alfaro's story appears tortured to accommodate the physical evidence of the ransacked house" adding that "it is a story made to fit in with the crime scene although robbery was supposedly not the reason Webb and his companions entered that house". The SC also held that it was possible for Alfaro to know the details about the Vizconde killings because she had prior access to the details that the investigators knew of the case. Eleazar, a strict disciplinarian, is probably the only PNP chief who is loved and respected by the citizenry. As already mentioned, the SC concluded Alfaro to be not a credible witness because she did not meet these two criteria. ", Jessica Alfaro: Alfaro's e-mail from abroad read. 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. She did not know nor met any of them. starring Kris Aquino as Carmela Vizconde. Cruz, Manila accompanying his brother-in-law, Jonas Padel Ayhon, whose wife had just given birth; and Rameses de Jesus and Lenido Lumanog had just left Manila for Mabalacat, Pampanga where they stayed until the evening of June 14. InVizconde case: The SC has given weight to the importance of forensic evidence in a court trial. Tolentino also said, the photographs and videotapes purportedly showing Webb in the United States appeared to be tampered. MANILA, Philippines - Six new witnesses reveal Hubert Webb, son of former Senator Freddie Webb, was in the Philippines when the Vizconde massacre took place on June 1991. The details of how they were killed were grim. This is one of the most controversial and widely publicised massacre cases because of the involvement of the son of a former Philippine Senator, Freddie Webb; and six others from a wealthy family background similar to that of the accused. We have ruled that accused-appellant may not invoke the acquittal of the other conspirators to merit the reversal of his conviction for murder. He also ordered the Secretary of Justice Leila de Lima to study the possibility of giving compensation to Webb and others. He alleged that he could not forget Webb because Biong had allegedly threatened him, Do not cheat him. For example, it rejected as not impartial the corroborating testimony of Augusto Santoss brother-in-law that he was at the hospital with him when Abadilla was murdered. No. [2] Two of the accused remain fugitives from the law: Joey Filart and Artemio Ventura. Hello friends! It strictly laid down these as the least requirement in evaluating the credibility of the claim of positive identification. Therefore, the applications of the SC on evaluating the defence of alibi of the accused have not been equally applied in these two cases. Episode on July 5, 2011 Tuesday after Saksi! The CA held that these ballistic results are inconclusive and can never prevail over appellants positive identification by eyewitness Freddie Alejo.

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