Bungled investigation

If the murderers of the Vizcondes couldn’t be pinned down in 19 years, how can it still be possible in the next six months before the statute of limitations applies?

Malacañang should not raise false hopes on this case, which was lost because of law enforcement bungling on the scale of the Aug. 23 hostage fiasco.

Gerardo Biong, the Parañaque cop who first responded to the massacre report, destroyed vital evidence at the crime scene. With physical evidence destroyed, investigators then took the easy way out, relying on the testimony of an alleged eyewitness.

Too many criminal cases in this country depend heavily on witnesses’ testimonies. The problem, as we have often seen, is that witnesses and affidavits can be manufactured, fake witnesses can retract and keep changing their statements, and even real witnesses can have unreliable recollections of a crime.

The Vizconde massacre was no different. The National Bureau of Investigation foisted on the public its purported star witness, Jessica Alfaro, who often looked drug-addled in her public appearances and distracted by her alleged affair with an NBI agent.

Maybe Alfaro just lacked proper prepping by prosecutors. But the Supreme Court noted several inconsistencies in her court testimony as it threw out the conviction of Hubert Webb, his five co-conspirators in the rape with homicide case, and Biong.

The six principal convicts, all young men when the crime was committed, were found guilty by Amelita Tolentino, at the time a judge of the Parañaque Regional Trial Court. I once wasted an afternoon in her courtroom just to attest to the veracity of a report about the case published in The STAR. During that session she instructed me, among other things, to end every reply I gave in court with “Your honor,” not to face her directly but not to turn my back on her either, so I ended up talking to a wall across the courtroom during my testimony. I thought at the time that even if the prosecution failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, she wouldn’t have the nerve to go against public opinion and clear Webb.

I saw Webb’s passport and talked to him at his family’s Makati condominium unit shortly before his formal indictment. He professed innocence and hoped for the best. The passport seemed aboveboard, but I’m no expert on such matters. I told him he should be prepared for incarceration; the public clamor for it at the time was simply deafening.

Tolentino convicted everyone and was eventually promoted to the Court of Appeals, which upheld her decision on the Vizconde case.

The Webbs recently won an appeal for a DNA test, only to find out – no surprise here – that the semen sample taken from rape victim Carmela Vizconde had disappeared, with both the NBI and the Parañaque court unable to account for it.

So Webb will likely never be able to establish his innocence beyond reasonable doubt. And everyone, except the convicts’ mothers and the SC, still believes in his and the others’ guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Will we ever find out the whole truth and nothing but…? Don’t hold your breath.

There ought to be a law against destroying and losing evidence, and incompetence in criminal investigation.

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That incompetence, that lack of knowledge of basic criminal investigation, leads not only to the dismissal of cases filed in court but also to human rights violations as cops take extrajudicial short cuts in solving crimes.

The other night I asked Director General Raul Bacalzo, who became Philippine National Police (PNP) chief three weeks after the Aug. 23 hostage debacle, if that kind of bungled crime investigation is still possible. His response was realistic and candid but not too encouraging.

Bacalzo, a lawyer with a doctorate in peace and security administration, admitted that the average PNP member has “very, very insufficient training in (criminal) investigation.”

From 2008 until this year, Bacalzo headed the PNP’s Directorate for Investigation, which provides training in this field for police personnel. The directorate has a school for criminal investigation at Camp Crame, PNP headquarters.

Bacalzo said that in the six-month training course for the lowest ranking cop (police officer 1), only one day is devoted to criminal investigation. The one-day session includes lessons on basic forensics and preservation of evidence and the crime scene.

The school facilities are also acutely inadequate for training all cops. The PNP, which currently has 135,000 members, adds an average of 7,000 a year (after regular attrition) to the force. The school for investigation can train a maximum of only 400 students a year. There are eight classes with a maximum of 50 students each.

Bacalzo, who was trained in the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, reviewed the school curriculum and said there were many subjects missing in the courses for both officers and non-officers.

Among the subjects missing are those on case management, forensic investigation, and handling of cases involving human rights as well as women and children.

Last week the PNP started training the first-ever batch of cops who will train fellow officers on investigation management.

Yesterday Bacalzo was scheduled to open two classes on criminal investigation, starting with 50 cops each from Central Luzon and Metro Manila.

The other day Bacalzo was told that the PNP was ready to start regional training of cops on investigation. He said the actual training would have to wait until early next year.

The scariest lesson from the acquittal and release of those convicted of the murders of Estrellita, Carmela and Jennifer Vizconde is that the bungled investigation of a criminal case could happen again.

Instead of raising false hopes that the Vizcondes’ murderers will still be brought to justice, the government should reassure the public that everything is being done to improve police capability to solve crimes.