Newspapermen can comment on justice. But they cannot dispense justice. Only our court can do that. Four things are required of a judge: to hear courteously, answer judiciously, consider temperately, and decide impartially. Parañaque Judge Amelita Tolentino's verdict on Hubert Webb and five others on the controversial Vizconde massacre case started the Year 2000 with a major controversy. It has already caused the death of a laborer who was stabbed by his drinking buddies for expressing his strong personal stand on the issue.
The Webb case will automatically be elevated to the Supreme Court and we are sure that whatever the Supreme Court decides will be fair and just to both parties.
Father Sonny Ramirez, O.P., who is the spiritual adviser of President Estrada was quoted by a newspaper as saying that he saw Hubert Webb on June 29, 1991 working in a gasoline station in California. Fr. Ramirez has no reason to lie but his statement is useless because it was not given in court during the trial. Some press commentators have also attested that they had personal knowledge that Webb was in California during the time of the crime. The thing is: was their statement given in court during the trial or was it a statement written in their columns?
In the meantime, it will help Hubert Webb and the other five who have been convicted with him if they voluntarily submit themselves to a lie-detector test. If they are innocent as they claim, it will not do them any harm. They have more than ample time to do this while they are waiting for the Supreme Court's decision on their appeal.
The thing to remember is that the Vizcondes are as much entitled to justice as the six who have been convicted. There is no doubt that Webb has been getting an undue amount of publicity because his father is a celebrity and a senator to boot. The best proof is that the public hardly even knows the names of the other five who have also been convicted and who reportedly are scions of prominent families. The readers can test this fact himself by seeing if he can recall the names of the other five.
There are events in this case that the people have totally forgotten. The police tried to lay the blame on two notorious gangs before they finally arrested Webb and his alleged group.
Justice is the enforcement of the written laws. It is truth in action and it is not justice unless everyone gets his due. The persons who should be the most unhappy if the wrong people are convicted for the rape and killing of Carmela Vizconde along with her mother and younger sister in BF home would be Lauro Vizconde, who was the husband and father of the three victims. He seems to be under the impression that the police arrested the people who committed the crime and that Judge Tolentino dispensed justice.
Let us all wait and accept whatever the Supreme Court decides on this case.