Jessica: It's wrong Joey Filart, again

Oops, wrong guy.

The Joey Filart arrested by the police in Isabela last Friday was the same person the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) apprehended in 1995 and cleared by Jessica Alfaro, the star witness in the 1991 Vizconde massacre, a government prosecutor told The STAR yesterday.

State prosecutor Roberto Lao said he was told by Alfaro over the telephone that she was "100 percent sure" that Filart, who was flown from Isabela to Parañaque over the weekend, was not the same Filart she implicated in the controversial case.

"She told me that this is the very same person from Mindoro presented to her during the time of NBI Director Mariano Mison," Lao said. "Definitely he is not the guy involved in the case."

Alfaro hinted to The STAR Friday night that the Filart she knew was about 5-feet, five-inches tall and a mestizo with a prominent nose.

"One look at him and you'll know at once that he's a rich kid. He has a prominent nose and a chubby face," Alfaro said.

She is expected to confront the arrested Filart today for identification.

The chief of the defunct NBI unit that cracked the Vizconde massacre case in 1995 agreed that the Filart arrested in Isabela had already been cleared by Alfaro.

NBI Deputy Director Arturo Figueras, who once headed the Task Force JeCarEs which was named after victims Jennifer, Carmela and Estrelita Vizconde, said the police may have to release Filart "unless they have new evidence to pin him down."

Members of the Cagayan Valley police arrested Filart in San Mariano town in Isabela early Friday. Filart was reportedly staying with relatives who owned a logging concession in the town.

His relatives, particularly his younger brother Diego, insisted that Filart had already been "invited" once by the NBI to be in a police lineup for Alfaro to identify.

They said Alfaro told probers that the Filart in the lineup was not the one involved in the Vizconde massacre.

It could not be ascertained yet how Filart, who claims to be a resident of Isabela, could have been arrested in Mindoro in 1995.

Chief Superintendent Thompson Lantion, head of the Cagayan Valley police, said they found an identity card in Filart's wallet which showed his address as Merville Subdivision, Parañaque.

Alfaro said a certain Joey Filart served as one of the lookouts outside the Vizconde residence in BF Homes Parañaque on the night of June 29, 1991 when Carmela Vizconde was raped and killed along with her mother Estrelita and sister Jennifer.

She said this Filart resided in Merville.

Lantion added that the Filart they arrested admitted to him that he was a nephew of retired police Gen. Marino Filart, former head of the defunct Capital Regional Command (Capcom).

With this development, Lao said there may no longer be a need for the Vizconde case to be reopened.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier said it would move for the reopening of the nine-year-old case should evidence prove that the Filart from Isabela was the "right" Filart implicated by Alfaro.

The case, which was considered as the most controversial in the country this century, came to a close last Jan. 6 when Parañaque Judge Amelita Tolentino meted reclusion perpetua or 40-year jail terms to Hubert Webb, son of former Sen. Freddie Webb; Hospicio "Pyke" Fernandez, Miguel Rodriguez, Antonio "Tony Boy" Lejano, Peter Estrada and Michael Gatchalian.

Tolentino also sentenced to 11 years in prison former Parañaque policeman Gerardo Biong for being an accessory to the crime.

Lawyer Vitaliano Aguirre, head counsel of Webb and the others convicted in the case, said they would welcome the reopening of the case if only to discredit Alfaro whom they accused of fabricating her testimony against the seven accused.

Alfaro, for her part, said she suspects Filart's arrest in Isabela was a handiwork of the defense to force her to come out. "I don't know if they intentionally did that so I would surface," she said.

Alfaro continues to be under the DOJ's witness protection program.

Meanwhile, NBI Director Federico Opinion said that the arrested Filart cannot press charges against the policemen who apprehended him. "They (Cagayan Valley police) only did their job. There was indeed an arrest warrant issued by the judge against a certain Joey Filart," he said.

Opinion said he will also call to his office the NBI agents who arrested Filart in 1995 to see if indeed this is the same person the police nabbed in San Mariano, Isabela.

"We will be able to determine by tomorrow (today) if there is a Vizconde breakthrough. I think Jessica will be the best person to answer that," he said.

Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) chairman Dante Jimenez and vice chairman Lauro Vizconde will also be at the Parañaque City Jail today to witness Alfaro's revelation if indeed the arrested Filart had already been cleared.

Another suspect in the case, one Artemio "Dong" Ventura, was never arrested. He is believed to have fled the country for good.

The VACC fears the possibility that the Filart and Ventura involved in the crime are already dead. -