DOJ OKs release of cop in Vizconde case whitewash

MANILA, Philippines – Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday she has approved the release of Gerardo Biong, a former Parañaque policeman who was convicted for whitewashing the investigation of the Vizconde massacre in 1991.

In a text message, she said records show that Biong has already served the sentence handed down by the regional trial court in 2000.

The New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City, where Biong is detained, has received his release paper but he will not yet walk free – at least until Tuesday – because he still has a motion for reconsideration before the Supreme Court (SC), appealing his conviction.

“We held his release because of the motion for reconsideration. We will still have to submit our position paper to the DOJ regarding that,” Teodora Diaz, NBP’s assistant director for administration and rehabilitation, told The STAR.

In a separate interview, NBP Director Ernesto Diok­no told The STAR that De Lima has already sent the NBP Biong’s release papers but he has yet to see it.

Diaz said unless Biong’s lawyer withdraws the appeal, the former police official will remain locked up in the Muntinlupa facility.

‘Sentence overserved’

Jose Flaminiano, Biong’s lawyer, said his client should be released because he has already served his sentence.

“Even if the Supreme Court upholds the guilty verdict, he should still be released because he done serving his sentence,” Flamiano told The STAR. “In fact, he’s overserving already.”

Biong was sentenced to suffer 12 years in jail. He has been detained since Sept. 6, 1995, according to Flaminiano.

Public Attorney’s Office chief Persida Acosta, one of the prosecutors in the trial, said Biong can only be released if his conviction is upheld by the SC.

Hubert Webb, one of the men convicted of killing the wife and two daughters of Lauro Vizconde in 1991, is appealing the lower court’s verdict before the SC.

The SC was already set to rule last Tuesday on appeals made by Webb and two of the five other men convicted of rape with homicide, but the voting was moved to a later date upon the request of some justices.

A court insider told The STAR that some justices wanted to release the ruling in January “in deference to the Christmas season.”

Two other convicted rapist-murderers – Hospicio “Pyke” Fernandez and Antonio “Tony Boy” Lejano – have asked the SC to acquit them, claiming wrong verdict in the trial.

Webb, Lejano, and Fernandez and other accused in the case – Michael Gatchalian, Peter Estrada and Miguel “Ging” Rodriguez - were sentenced to life imprisonment by Parañaque judge and now Court of Appeals (CA) Justice Amelita Tolentino in 2000 for rape with homicide.

This conviction was affirmed by the CA in 2005 through a division then composed of Associate Justices Rodrigo Cosico, Regalado Maambong and Lucenito Tagle.