after catching most of cheche lazaro’s Dalawang Mukha ng Hustisya the other night, napaisip naman ako. impossible not to be touched by the webb family’s stories and how they’ve never let up on loving, caring for, and visiting hubert in jail and believing in, swearing to, his innocence. what if he IS innocent?
of course nakakadurog din naman ng puso ang nangyari sa vizconde mother and daughters. impossible not to sympathize with the aggrieved husband and father and to understand why he agonizes over the webbs’ continuing appeal for reconsideration — if hubert et al are innocent, then who violated and massacred his loved ones, and why are they walking free?
so i was googling the case all day yesterday to refresh my memory and here are some worthy links:
pinoyexchange.com forum december 30 1999 to january 8, 2000 :
The Vizconde Verdict
The Manila Times’ 2005 Special Report :
Questions linger in Vizconde case, Part I
Huberts main defense: ‘I was in California’ Part II
solita “winnie” monsod’s 2007 Inquirer column :
Hope for Hubert Webb
Sunday Inquirer Magazine’s 2008 feature :
The Vizconde Case
The Manila Times april 2010 report :
High Court reopens Vizconde massacre case
ramon tulfo’s april 2010 Inquirer column:
I Swear on Hubert Webb’s innocence
ramon tulfo’s may 2010 Bandera column :
Bakit ako atat na atat sa Vizconde Massacre?
winnie monsod’s june 2010 Inquirer column :
The case of the missing semen sample
cesar m. de los reyes’s letter to the editor, response to winnie :
Deprived of chance to prove innocence
alex magno’s july 2010 philippine star column :
DNA
pinoyexchange.com forum in reaction to cheche’s docu : The Vizconde Massacre: Do you believe that Hubert Webb is guilty?
also i found two links with information new to me. the first from a pdf doc. “A Son, a Father and a Terrible Night” by Tamara de Guzman (google “When I first followed this crime, I believed Hubert Webb was guilty…”) where Freddie Webb is quoted as saying:
Partly because of my being in politics, my son got caught in the middle,” he finally said. “There were Indian nationals who were developing drugs in Las Piñas City, They were caught by the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) and were locked up. I accidentally discovered a plan to free them and I exposed it. The investigation led back to their financier who has connections high up in the government. They got back at me through Hubert.
which was never reported by mainstream media (if memory serves), but was confirmed seconded by a commenter on ellen tordesilla’s blog:
Mike – February 12, 2010 1:27 am
With regards to Hubert Webb, I don’t think he is guilty of the crime (Vizconde massacre). Napaginitan si Senator Webb ng NBI coz pinakialaman niya yung kaso ng mga Indian drug traders who were in the custody of the NBI then and pinatakas. I think there were 12 of them Indian nationals. It was then Rep. Webb who asked for the investigation of the incident.
the second link is more recent. a feb 2010 gmanews.tv report of senators probed for unethical/questionable conduct has this interesting detail:
In 1996, during the 10th Congress, Senator Freddie Webb was investigated for alleged abuse of authority and probable violation of laws in the employment of his son Hubert Webb in the Senate Electoral Tribunal.
This was after Webb claimed that his son, a suspect in the celebrated Vizconde massacre, was in the United States from March 9, 1991 to October 28, 1992 when his daily time record showed that he went to work, from 9 am to 6 pm.
The younger Webb was found guilty of the murder.
so. senator webb was not found guilty. i suppose it was punishment enough that his son was found guilty in the vizconde case? the senator must have soooo regretted falsifying time records (okay, if in fact he did), lalo na if these time records were known to the prosecution and the judge who rejected all evidence that hubert was out of the country.
just the same. i find it strange that the court found alfaro, biong, his mistress, and the two webb housemaids more credible than the u.s. state department, immigration, the fbi, etc. kasi daw the latter’s documents could have easily been faked. really? all of them? wasn’t it much much easier to bribe the so-called witnesses into concocting that wild story of drugs, sex, and crime?
what i remember most about the 2000 verdict was that it was more sensational than surprising. thanks to two carlos caparas films — The Vizconde Massacre: God Help Us! in 1993 starring kris aquino as carmela, and The Untold Story: Vizconde Massacre Two – May The Lord Be With Us in 1994 starring vina morales — the public was just oh-so-primed to see hubert hang.