Hubert's camp questions Guingona's intervention in SC ruling

MANILA, Philippines - Lawyers of Hubert Webb believe the action of former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. questioning the Supreme Court (SC) decision acquitting him and six others of the 1991 murders of the Vizconde family could set “a dangerous precedent” if given due course.

In a statement sent to The STAR, lawyer Zenaida Ongkiko-Acorda said Guingona’s move was not allowed under the Rules of Court.

“The motion for intervention was filed out of time,” she said.

“Under Section 1, Rule 19 of the Rules of Court, the proper time to file a motion for intervention is at any time before rendition of judgment by the trial court.”

Ongkiko-Acorda assailed the claim of the 81-year-old Guingona that he has legal interest in the case being the secretary of justice when the case was undergoing preliminary investigation in 1995.

“In this case, Senator Guingona is not a proper intervenor since he has no legal interest in the case,” she said.

“He has not shown that he has an actual, material, direct and immediate interest in the subject matter of the controversy such that he will stand to either gain or lose from the judgment.

“To allow his intervention which was filed out of time by somebody who has no legal interest in the case would create a dangerous precedent.”

On the other hand, former senator Freddie Webb said Guingona has some explaining to do now that the SC had absolved Hubert.

“We are asking Guingona who was the justice secretary in 1995 during the Vizconde massacre trials to explain why he did not find merit in the findings of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) proving Webb’s alibi that he was in the US during the time of the Vizconde murders,” he said in a statement sent to The STAR.

Webb cited a letter by then US Legal Attaché Robert Heafner addressed to Guingona, which purportedly proved that Hubert was indeed in the US during the killings.

“We have from the beginning maintained my son’s innocence due to the fact that one cannot be in two places at one time since Hubert was in the US during the murders,” he said.

“Although the Justice Department under Guingona previously received official documents in the form of an FBI report and a note verbal signed by Madeleine Albright, Hubert spent 15 years in jail.”

After the SC overturned the findings of the Parañaque Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals on grounds that prosecution star witness Jessica Alfaro was not a reliable witness, Guingona should explain his findings as justice secretary, Webb said.

Guingona has organized the “People’s Run for Vizcondes and Other Victims of Injustice” set on Monday in front of the SC in Manila starting 6:30 a.m.

He will be joined by a group dubbed “Justice for All Movement.”

They invited participants to join the event and wear white and red.

Last Dec. 29, Lauro Vizconde already filed his motion for reconsideration through lawyers from the Public Attorney’s Office to seek exemption from the constitutionally mandated double jeopardy rule.

In seeking exemption from the rule, Vizconde cited the SC ruling on the Aquino-Galman murders.

Webb has asked the SC to summarily dismiss Vizconde’s motion for reconsideration on grounds of his lack of legal standing and that of the PAO lawyers, who do not have the authority to prosecute a criminal case.

Webb also asked the SC to issue a show cause order against the PAO lawyers to explain why they should not be cited in contempt for filing the pleading “despite knowing that they had no authority to do so.”