SC sets date to decide on Vizconde massacre case

MANILA, Philippines - The two-decade-old Vizconde massacre case may finally have closure as the Supreme Court (SC) is set to rule on petitions appealing the conviction of Hubert Webb and five others.

Court administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said the case has been included in the agenda of SC when full court session resumes on Nov. 23 after a month-long recess.

“It was actually calendared for deliberations on next Tuesday, Nov. 16. But since that day was declared a holiday, it was moved for agenda on Nov. 23,” he told reporters.

Marquez said magistrates are expected to cast their votes on whether or not the Parañaque Regional Trial Court Branch 274 and the Court of Appeals were correct in earlier decisions convicting the five accused.

The SC moved to resolve the case after it recently dropped Webb’s bid to seek DNA tests of missing forensic evidence that he claimed could clear him.

Invoking his constitutional right to due process, Webb insisted on his innocence and argued that the failure of the government to produce the semen sample taken from the body of victim Carmela Vizconde is tantamount to negligence or willful suppression, which warrants his acquittal in the rape-slay case.

Two other convicted rapist-murderers, Hospicio “Pyke” Fernandez and Antonio “Tony Boy” Lejano, have asked the Court to acquit them, claiming wrong verdict in the trial.

Webb, Lejano, and Fernandez and other accused in the case – Michael Gatchalian, Peter Estrada and Miguel “Ging” Rodriguez – were sentenced to life imprisonment by Paranaque RTC Judge and now CA Justice Amelita Tolentino in 2000 for rape with homicide. An accessory, Gerardo Biong, was also sentenced to imprisonment of 12 years as accessory to the crime for destroying evidence.

This conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals on Dec. 15, 2005 through a division then composed of Associate Justices Rodrigo Cosico, Regalado Maambong and Lucenito Tagle.

Court records show that the crime was committed on June 29, 1991. Carmela’s mother, Estrelita, and younger sister, Jennifer, were also killed.