MANILA, Philippines – With a limited timetable, the administration of President Aquino will be exerting its best efforts to arrest and hale to court in less than six months the culprits behind the 19-year-old Vizconde massacre.
“Best efforts will be exerted to locate the suspects,” Undersecretary Abigail Valte said, insisting that “it is within the power of the President to review and order a reinvestigation” of the case, after the Supreme Court (SC) freed suspects Hubert Webb and six others.
The deputy presidential spokesperson conceded, however, that she still has no idea whether probers either from the National Bureau of Investigation or the Philippine National Police already have new leads, although she said it’s not entirely back to square one.
“It’s not really back to square one because they still have the evidence with them,” she said.
The logic behind the memorandum Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. issued to the NBI, PNP and the Department of Justice and Department of the Interior and Local Government is to at least give justice to Lauro Vizconde, if it would still be possible.
The government only has six months before the 20-year prescription period to prosecute the case lapses in July 2011.
Malacañang, for its part, clarified that the order to reopen and solve the Vizconde massacre case was not a slap in the face of the SC but only meant to give the Vizcondes justice.
‘Acquittal means innocence’
On the other hand, the Webbs insisted yesterday that Hubert and the other accused were vindicated in the celebrated Vizconde massacre in 1991 and virtually declared innocent by the SC ruling last week.
In a statement, the Webb family deplored the reported statement of court administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez that the decision did not necessarily imply the innocence of the accused.
“This personal opinion of the Supreme Court spokesperson is uncalled for,” they lamented.
Marquez said in a press conference that “the acquittal of Webb, et al. did not mean they were innocent of the charges” because the SC only ruled that their guilt beyond reasonable doubt was not established during the trial due to “inherent inconsistencies” in the testimony of the prosecution’s star witness Jessica Alfaro.
He was only answering questions from reporters on the difference between the verdicts of “not guilty beyond reasonable doubt” and “innocent.”
There was nothing in the 38-page decision penned by Associate Justice Roberto Abad that declared Webb and the others innocent of the crime.
But the camp of Webb believes that his case is either black or white.
“There is no need for the magistrates to say that Hubert and his co-accused are innocent. Because of the presumption of innocence, Hubert and his co-accused are innocent unless proven otherwise, and there is no need for them to be declared such,” they said.
Special investigating team
Meantime, PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo formed yesterday a police special investigation team to assist in the reinvestigation of the Vizconde massacre case.
Bacalzo also gave assurance on the availability of other PNP personnel, units and resources in support of the operations of the special investigation team.
The PNP chief ordered Director Raul Castañeda, chief of the Directorial Staff and Director Arturo Cacdac, chief of the Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management, to organize a special investigation team that will conduct a parallel investigation into the Vizconde case. - With Edu Punay, Cecille Suerte Felipe