Hubert to DOJ: Probe Alfaro

MANILA, Philippines –  Following his acquittal in the celebrated Vizconde massacre in 1991, Hubert Webb now wants Jessica Alfaro to pay for her false testimony that led to his 15-year incarceration.

Webb called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate Alfaro and file a criminal case against her for what the Supreme Court (SC) ruled were inherently inconsistent testimonies during the trial.

“Please take a look at Jessica Alfaro’s two conflicting affidavits, and investigate why she has two affidavits,” Webb said in a letter to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

Webb personally handed the letter to De Lima during a closed-door meeting on Thursday, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR.

The SC ruled to acquit Webb and the six others on Dec. 14, 2010 because of “inherent inconsistencies” in the testimony of Alfaro.

Alfaro, the principal witness whose testimony led to the conviction of Webb and the other accused, had admitted working as an asset of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) who was coached to testify after she presented herself as replacement of a witness she could not produce.

Alfaro had earlier claimed she knew the eyewitness in the killings but she could not present the witness.

Webb noted the SC made mention of Alfaro as a substitute witness, in the absence of any witness that could directly pin down the accused.

Webb said the SC had noted a glaring error where Alfaro mistakenly pointed to someone else instead of one of the accused during a police lineup.

Alfaro pointed to a certain Michael Rodriguez in a police lineup, a drug dependent from the Bicutan Rehabilitation Center, instead of personally identifying one of the accused, Miguel Rodriguez.

“She ran berserk, slapping and kicking Michael, exclaiming, ‘How can I forget your face. We just saw each other in a disco one month ago and you told me then that you will kill me’ but as it turned out, he was not the Miguel Rodriguez, the accused in this case,” the SC had said.

Another inconsistency in the testimony made by Alfaro was her claim that she left the house after hearing a woman scream upon seeing Webb and the other accused out of fear that she might get involved.

But this claim of fear was not shown in her next claim that she went back into the house to watch as Webb allegedly raped Carmela Vizconde on the floor of the master’s bedroom and killed Carmela’s mother and younger sister.

The SC said Alfaro’s “emotional pendulum swing indicates a witness who was confused with her own lies.”

Webb said he is willing to cooperate and asked the DOJ to compel Alfaro to submit to a reinvestigation.

While believing that he should no longer undergo reinvestigation after acquittal, Webb said he considers the move as another opportunity to clear his name.

“We have submitted numerous documents to show I was in the US. A re-examination and an authentication of these documents will speed up the investigation. The Supreme Court has confirmed the veracity of these documents. Maybe a few phone calls to proper authorities can reconfirm and authenticate these documents,” he told the DOJ.

Webb also urged De Lima to “interview people in the US supporting the authenticity of the documents he submitted as well as my whereabouts” apart from working for the return of Alfaro and arrest of two other accused – Artemio Ventura and Joey Filart – “in the spirit of fairness.”

“I hope you would report to the press and the media the results of your investigation of my concerns above. It is very frustrating and distressing that the name Hubert Webb is still being reviled as a killer and rapist. I understand the clamor for heads to roll for this horrific crime, but why should it be my head again?” Webb lamented.

In the same letter, Webb lamented how Lauro Vizconde and his supporters resorted to “machinations, insinuations and flagrant distortions of facts by focusing doggedly and too aggressively in trying to pin the blame on me, instead of looking for the real killers.”

Webb stressed his willingness to cooperate with the reinvestigation to help Vizconde in his quest for justice and truth.

Webb’s counsel Demetrio Custodio Jr. said they would present documents that would help the inter-agency probe panel conclude that his client is innocent.

Custodio believes the documentary evidence earlier submitted to court in defense of his client would put final closure to the case.

“There are more ways by which we could show utmost cooperation but without necessarily involving our client being the subject or focus of the reinvestigation,” he added.

Custodio said it was agreed during the meeting with De Lima that Webb would no longer undergo lie detector test, as was earlier suggested.

“Our client was more than willing because he felt that he can show his innocence but we advised him not to take the polygraph examination because there are other ways by which we could produce the conclusion that he was not here and that is by presenting the evidence and the documents that are available to us,” he explained.

Hubert went to the DOJ with his father, former senator Freddie Webb, and brothers Jason and Fritz and their friends.

De Lima, for her part, insisted Webb should still undergo reinvestigation despite the SC ruling.

She told Webb’s camp that she was just performing her duty in pursuing the reinvestigation as ordered by President Aquino.

“I told them that we are looking at three set of suspects and that we cannot rule out Webb, et al in the reinvestigation because this is entirely an reinvestigation irrespective of the (SC decision),” De Lima later told reporters after the closed-door meeting.

“They will be presenting documents with respect to their defense of alibi, they are asking that we validate, check, verify from the proper authorities, specifically the US authorities,” she said.

Last Tuesday, the High Court denied for lack of merit the motion filed by the widower seeking reconsideration of its Dec.14, 2010 decision that overturned the guilty verdict handed down by the Parañaque regional trial court in January 2000.

Apart from Webb, the other convicts who were acquitted were Hospicio Fernandez, Antonio Lejano, Michael Gatchalian, Peter Estrada, Miguel Rodriguez for the crime of rape with homicide, and former police officer Gerardo Biong for destroying evidence.