Vizconde's own kin cleared cop of whitewash raps

MANILA, Philippines -  The innocence of Gerardo Biong, a former Parañaque policeman convicted for whitewashing the investigation of the 1991 Vizconde massacre, would have been established as early as the trial of the case, according to a transcript of the hearings obtained by The STAR.

Engineer Marciano Gatmaitan III, a cousin-in-law of victim Estellita Vizconde, testified on Nov. 20, 1997 that it was him – not Biong – who ordered the burning of the bloodied blankets, bed sheets and mattresses in Estellita’s room. Estellita and her two daughters were killed in the massacre.

A transcript of the Nov. 20, 1997 hearing, part of a full transcript that runs to more than 400 pages, showed that Gatmaitan told the court that Biong only allowed the burning of the evidence after investigators already examined them and upon his request. He said the bloodied items were “burned by some neighbors of Mrs. Vizconde” in the vacant lot adjacent to their house.

“We wanted to clean the house already since (Lauro) Vizconde was arriving and we did not want him to see these bloodied items as we want to spare him the agony of seeing how his family was killed,” he said upon questioning by defense lawyer Vitaliano Aguirre II.

Biong was arrested on Sept. 6, 1995 and released on Dec. 4, 1997 after he was allowed to post bail. When he was convicted as an accessory to the massacre, he was brought to the New Bilibid Prisons in Jan. 7, 2000. He was released in November last year after completing his sentence.

Gatmaitan had also said during the trial that he believed Hubert Webb and the other accused were not responsible for the crime.

He told the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) of his suspicion that Estellita’s brother, Antonio Nicolas, and cousin-in-law Lulu Nicolas had allegedly perpetrated the killings, saying they “might have the motive to harm the victims.”

But Gatmaitan’s testimony was junked by then Parañaque Regional Trial Court Judge Amelita Tolentino, now a Court of Appeals justice, who convicted him of being an accessory to the crime in January 2000 and sentenced him to 12 years’ imprisonment. Tolentino had also found the primary suspects – Webb, Hospicio “Pyke” Fernandez, Antonio “Tony Boy” Lejano, Michael Gatchalian, Peter Estrada and Miguel “Ging” Rodriguez – guilty of the massacre.

The guilty verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeals in December 2005. The Supreme Court, in its December 2010 ruling, reversed the CA’s findings and acquitted Webb, Biong and the other accused.

Supporters of Webb who dubbed themselves as “Justice for Hubert Webb Movement” said in a statement sent to The STAR that “if only Gatmaitan’s testimony was given weight during trial, then the wrongful incarceration of Biong and other accused for many years should have been avoided.”