Corona denies being whistle-blower on Vizconde case

MANILA, Philippines - Chief Justice Renato Corona yesterday denied allegations he tipped off that a ranking magistrate had lobbied for the acquittal of the convicts in the Vizconde massacre case.

Corona, through SC spokesman Midas Marquez, denied telling Lauro Vizconde that Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio had approached fellow magistrates to vote for the acquittal of Hubert Webb and others convicted in the massacre.

“I spoke with the Chief Justice yesterday (Monday). He has categorically denied issuing those statements. While Mr. Vizconde and Mr. (Dante) Jimenez saw him sometime end of July (2010), he never said those statements. It’s really not in his character to say those things. More so he does not know them personally,” Marquez told a press conference at the SC yesterday.

“There’s a categorical denial already from the Chief Justice,” Marquez said.

Marquez said Vizconde became upset after the high court granted the petition of Webb to conduct DNA testing.

“And it appeared that Mr. Vizconde was very sure, sounded very certain, of a conviction. And he was in fact accusing Chief Justice Corona of conniving with Justice Carpio in delaying the resolution of the case,” Marquez said.

He said Vizconde had sounded very certain the SC would uphold the conviction and did not see any reason to allow the petition to subject the specimen to DNA testing, believing that it would only delay the verdict.

Marquez also said Corona had insisted that it was a collective decision of the SC and not his alone.

According to Marquez, the supposed meeting between Corona, Vizconde and Jimenez took only five minutes and it offered no opportunity to discuss the case more thoroughly.

Marquez also questioned the timing of Vizconde’s revelations.

“Why should Mr. Vizconde make the statement after the court has decided with finality, after he was strongly admonished. Of course it is a belated revelation. So we don’t know exactly why only now he is making all those allegations and those statements,” said Marquez.

He said the SC would not investigate Vizconde’s allegations since they were all “unsubstantiated.”

“If you would recall, there was a mention about Justice Carpio, and Justice Carpio was not made subject of an ethics case. So it remains to my mind unsubstantiated. You already have a categorical denial from no less than the Chief Justice himself,” he said.

Marquez said Corona wanted to greet Vizconde and Jimenez when they had the meeting last July.

He said Corona wanted to congratulate the two since they were members of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) in expressing their concerns on the administration of justice.

When the conversation turned to the Vizconde case, Marquez said Corona abruptly ended the topic by stressing it was a collegial decision.

He said the Chief Justice was very surprised that Vizconde was coming out with those allegations.

Marquez said he still has no information if the SC would again admonish Vizconde or what they would do regarding these latest statements.

“I don’t want to speculate or second guess what’s running in the mind of Mr. Vizconde. What we know is that he is grieving. He lost his loved ones,” he said.

Vizconde made the allegations and pointed to Corona after admitting he became upset over the SC decision.

The SC had admonished Vizconde, along with Jimenez, for publicly insinuating the magistrates issued the decision for a fee.

Webb and five others were sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1991 murder of Vizconde’s wife Estrellita and their daughters Jennifer and Carmela, who was raped before being stabbed to death.

Right after the SC acquitted Webb and the other convicts, Vizconde accused the magistrates of receiving bribe money.

But before the decision to acquit Webb was announced on Dec. 14, 2010, Vizconde had revealed a magistrate had warned him of Carpio’s alleged efforts to acquit the convicts. Apart from Webb, the SC acquitted Antonio Lejano, Peter Estrada, Michael Gatchalian, Hospicio Fernandez and Miguel Rodriguez.

Former policeman Gerardo Biong, who was charged as an accessory and was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment, was acquitted although he had served his sentence in full before the decision was handed down.

Following the acquittal, the government vowed to reinvestigate the case, including the possibility of summoning Webb and the others who had been acquitted of the crime.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima claimed a “significant breakthrough” was made in the reinvestigation of the case.

De Lima said a breakthrough in the Vizconde massacre case is contained in a report of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that conducted the reinvestigation.

De Lima though refused to elaborate on the details regarding the new development.

NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula also refused to give any details.

De Lima said the breakthrough had allowed the NBI investigators to wrap up its reinvestigation.

An inter-agency task force composed of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the NBI and the Philippine National Police (PNP) was created for the reinvestigation of Vizconde massacre.

The task force has until June 29, 2011 to wrap up the probe, taking into account the 20-year prescriptive period to allow charges to be filed.