DOJ focusing on new Vizconde suspects

MANILA, Philippines - Secretary Leila de Lima confirmed yesterday that the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s reinvestigation of the Vizconde massacre is zeroing in on a new set of suspects.

“The new suspects are already being hunted down,” she told a press conference.

She said she would meet with investigators both from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) next week for an update on the manhunt operations.

“One of them is still in the country by all indications, but has yet to be found,” De Lima revealed, but was quick to clarify that not all those from the previously convicted group of Hubert Webb, who were acquitted by the Supreme Court in December last year, would be spared from the new probe.

“(Having a new set of suspects) doesn’t mean that everybody from the original group is off the hook,” she hinted.

Last Thursday, the DOJ chief confirmed that the passport presented in Webb’s defense was found to be genuine.

She said a credible new witness who passed the polygraph test had pointed to the new suspects.

De Lima earlier confirmed that the DOJ’s new witness who passed the polygraph test last week is “Ms. X,” the woman earlier reported by The STAR who had claimed that her former husband and his friends were involved in the massacre.

Several other witnesses who also passed polygraph tests corroborated the testimony of the new witness.

De Lima, however, refused to reveal the names of the persons involved so as not to jeopardize ongoing operations.

“We are still convincing someone to execute a statement and undergo polygraph test,” she said.

The DOJ chief explained that this angle being pursued by PNP-CIDG is “separate but connected” to another one being pursued by the NBI.

These are the “two breakthroughs” in the reinvestigation she had mentioned earlier.

De Lima said they are trying their best to conclude the new probe before June 29, when the crime reaches its 20-year prescription period.

Lauro Vizconde already expressed confidence in the reinvestigation of DOJ.

He vowed to fully accept its results, despite his belief that it was Webb’s group that was really behind the crime.

The STAR exclusively reported last March the claim of the woman dubbed as Ms. X based on the findings of an investigation conducted by Christian F.W. Faust, a veteran criminologist from Australia with over 30 years of experience in investigating high-profile crimes worldwide, that her former husband and his friends were involved in the massacre.

Ms. X, whose identity was withheld, told Australian authorities in her application for protection visa that her ex-husband and his buddies from a drug ring who were “sons of politicians” and have powerful connections were “involved in the Vizconde massacre.”

De Lima already explained earlier that the group of Webb is still covered by the reinvestigation despite their acquittal by the SC. Last March, Webb submitted to the NBI for examination his passport, which he presented as proof that he was in the US when the crime happened.

She stressed, however, that Webb and the other accused – Hospicio Fernandez, Antonio Lejano, Michael Gatchalian, Peter Estrada, Miguel Rodriguez and Gerardo Biong – can no longer be prosecuted under the double jeopardy rule in criminal proceedings.

Earlier reports had it that the NBI has already traced in the US Joey Filart, one of two other accused who had remained in hiding since Webb and the others were convicted of rape with homicide by Parañaque regional trial court Branch 274 in January 2000. The other accused is Artemio Ventura.

She earlier revealed that among the subjects of the reinvestigation are members of the Barroso akyat-bahay gang and group of construction workers tagged by witness Rodel Acuña.

Acuña, who was admitted to the witness protection program, had pointed to a certain engineer Danilo Aguas as the supposed mastermind of the killing.

But his credibility was tainted after he recanted, along with two other corroborative witnesses, and claimed they were just coerced to admit the crime.